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Telework during COVID-19 outbreak: Impact on mental health among Italian workers
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 13 August 2021
Abstract
Since February 2020, the outbreak of COVID-19 has spread to several countries worldwide, including Italy, leading to an uptake of telework.
We aim to evaluate the psychopathological impact of teleworking during the COVID-19 pandemic in Italy, identifying mental health determinants among home-based workers.
804 participants completed an online survey, including the psychometric scales “Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale – 21 items” (DASS-21) and the “Insomnia Severity Index” (ISI). Teleworkers were also asked to provide information about their current work routine, home environment and clinical history.
At the DASS-21, 30% of the participants presented pathological levels of depression, 20.8% of anxiety and 30.7% of stress. At the ISI, 5% appeared to suffer from insomnia. Respondents with psychological and physical frailties, greater social isolation or inadequate working spaces manifested higher levels of psychiatric symptoms. Moreover, we also find a correlation of these symptoms with occupations in education. Telework was broadly appreciated and 87% of respondents expressed a willingness to maintain access to this arrangement.
Our results document that about a third of our sample manifested psychopathological symptoms while teleworking during the COVID-19 outbreak in Italy. However, telework itself does not seem to be directly associated with increased psychiatric symptoms, which were instead exacerbated by COVID-19-related stressful circumstances, as well as by constitutional and social determinants of health. Going forward, authorities should promote adequate measures in order to guarantee a healthy approach to teleworking.
No significant relationships.
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- Information
- European Psychiatry , Volume 64 , Special Issue S1: Abstracts of the 29th European Congress of Psychiatry , April 2021 , pp. S678
- Creative Commons
- This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
- Copyright
- © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the European Psychiatric Association
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