TY - JOUR
T1 - Anxiety among front-line health-care workers supporting patients with COVID-19
T2 - A global survey
AU - Cag, Yasemin
AU - Erdem, Hakan
AU - Gormez, Aynur
AU - Ankarali, Handan
AU - Hargreaves, Sally
AU - Ferreira-Coimbra, João
AU - Rubulotta, Francesca
AU - Belliato, Mirko
AU - Berger-Estilita, Joana
AU - Pelosi, Paolo
AU - Blot, Stijn
AU - Lefrant, Jean Yves
AU - Mardani, Masoud
AU - Darazam, Ilad Alavi
AU - Cag, Yakup
AU - Rello, Jordi
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 Elsevier Inc.
Copyright:
Copyright 2020 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 2021/1/1
Y1 - 2021/1/1
N2 - Objective: We aimed to explore anxiety status across a broad range of HCWs supporting patients with COVID-19 in different global regions. Method: This was an international online survey in which participation was on voluntary basis and data were submitted via Google Drive, across a two-week period starting from March 18, 2020. The Beck Anxiety Inventory was used to quantify the level of anxiety. Results: 1416 HCWs (70.8% medical doctors, 26.2% nurses) responded to the survey from 75 countries. The distribution of anxiety levels was: normal/minimal (n = 503, 35.5%), low (n = 390, 27.5%); moderate (n = 287, 20.3%), and severe (n = 236, 16.7%). According to multiple generalized linear model, female gender (p = 0.001), occupation (ie, being a nurse dealing directly with patients with COVID-19 [p = 0.017]), being younger (p = 0.001), reporting inadequate knowledge on COVID-19 (p = 0.005), having insufficient personal protective equipment (p = 0.001) and poor access to hand sanitizers or liquid soaps (p = 0.008), coexisting chronic disorders (p = 0.001) and existing mental health problems (p = 0.001), and higher income of countries where HCWs lived (p = 0.048) were significantly associated with increased anxiety. Conclusions: Front-line HCWs, regardless of the levels of COVID-19 transmission in their country, are anxious when they do not feel protected. Our findings suggest that anxiety could be mitigated ensuring sufficient levels of protective personal equipment alongside greater education and information.
AB - Objective: We aimed to explore anxiety status across a broad range of HCWs supporting patients with COVID-19 in different global regions. Method: This was an international online survey in which participation was on voluntary basis and data were submitted via Google Drive, across a two-week period starting from March 18, 2020. The Beck Anxiety Inventory was used to quantify the level of anxiety. Results: 1416 HCWs (70.8% medical doctors, 26.2% nurses) responded to the survey from 75 countries. The distribution of anxiety levels was: normal/minimal (n = 503, 35.5%), low (n = 390, 27.5%); moderate (n = 287, 20.3%), and severe (n = 236, 16.7%). According to multiple generalized linear model, female gender (p = 0.001), occupation (ie, being a nurse dealing directly with patients with COVID-19 [p = 0.017]), being younger (p = 0.001), reporting inadequate knowledge on COVID-19 (p = 0.005), having insufficient personal protective equipment (p = 0.001) and poor access to hand sanitizers or liquid soaps (p = 0.008), coexisting chronic disorders (p = 0.001) and existing mental health problems (p = 0.001), and higher income of countries where HCWs lived (p = 0.048) were significantly associated with increased anxiety. Conclusions: Front-line HCWs, regardless of the levels of COVID-19 transmission in their country, are anxious when they do not feel protected. Our findings suggest that anxiety could be mitigated ensuring sufficient levels of protective personal equipment alongside greater education and information.
KW - Coronavirus disease
KW - Pandemics
KW - Protective personal equipment
KW - SARS-CoV-2
KW - Workers health
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U2 - 10.1016/j.genhosppsych.2020.12.010
DO - 10.1016/j.genhosppsych.2020.12.010
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85098934920
VL - 68
SP - 90
EP - 96
JO - General Hospital Psychiatry
JF - General Hospital Psychiatry
SN - 0163-8343
ER -