Anxiety and Stress Seem Temporary during the Pneumonia COVID-19 Pandemic: A Survey on the Mental Health Status of Healthcare Workers

Abstract

Objective: To evaluate the presence/severity of depression, anxiety, and stress among health care workers(HCWs) who work on the specially allocated COVID-19 ward (Group A) and HCWs on the other wards(Group B).Methods: This questionnaire-based study was conducted from January 25 to February 28, 2021. The mentalstatus was assessed using the Persian version of the 42-item Depression, Anxiety, and Stress score (DASS-42).Gathered data was analyzed using SPSS version 25. The independent T-test and Chi-square tests were used tocompare quantitative and qualitative variables.Results: Two-hundred and twenty two questionnaires were eligible for analysis. Group A consisted of 33HCWs, and 189 (85.1%) individuals were working on the other wards. No statistically significant differenceswere seen regarding the Socio-demographic features except for the marital status (p=0.005). The depressions’mean score was comparable between group A and B (p=0.102). The mean scores of anxiety and stress weresignificantly lower in group A than group B (p=0.006), although the frequency of DASS-42 parameters did notdiffer between these two groups (p>0.05).Conclusion: Contrary to our assumptions, this study showed that the DASS-42 parameters were not higher inHCWs working on the COVID-19 wards. This might be justified by developing coping mechanisms, being onthe honeymoon phase of the disaster, compassion satisfaction, promising vaccine news, and working on theless impacted hospital.

Keywords

• anxiety
• stress
• pneumonia
• covid-19
• pandemic
• healthcare workers