The correlation between professional quality of life and mental health outcomes among hospital personnel during the Covid-19 pandemic in Taiwan

Abstract

Po-An Su,1 Mu-Chen Lo,2 Chiao-Ling Wang,2 Ping-Chen Yang,3 Chiao-I Chang,4 Meng-Chuan Huang,4,5 Ming-Kuo Huang,6 Kuang-I Cheng6 1Department of Operation Management, Kaohsiung Medical University Hospital, Kaohsiung Medical University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan; 2Department of Human Resource, Kaohsiung Medical University Hospital, Kaohsiung Medical University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan; 3Department of Psychiatry, Kaohsiung Medical University Hospital, Kaohsiung Medical University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan; 4Department of Public Health and Environmental Medicine, School of Medicine, College of Medicine, Kaohsiung Medical University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan; 5Department of Nutrition and Dietetics, Kaohsiung Medical University Hospital, Kaohsiung, Taiwan; 6Superintendent Office, Kaohsiung Medical University Hospital, Kaohsiung Medical University, Kaohsiung, TaiwanCorrespondence: Meng-Chuan HuangDepartment of Public Health and Environmental Medicine, School of Medicine, College of Medicine, Kaohsiung Medical University, No. 100, Shih-Chuan 1st Road, Sanmin Dist., Kaohsiung, 80708, TaiwanTel [phone] ext. 5341Fax [phone] ext. 5345Email [email protected]: This study investigated the association between professional quality of life, working context, and mental health outcomes among hospital personnel in Taiwan during the worldwide upsurge in COVID-19 cases.Patients and Methods: We recruited 503 hospital personnel to whom we administered online questionnaires containing items from the Professional Quality of Life (ProQoL) scale, which covers compassion satisfaction (CS), burnout (BO) and compassion fatigue (CF), the Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale (DASS-21) and questions on work-related variables. Data were collected from 13 July to 19 August 2020.Results: The participants generally reported moderate CS and BO and low CF. Overall prevalence of mild-to-extremely-severe stress, anxiety and depression was 24.5%, 39.6% and 31.2%, respectively. Multiple logistic regression revealed that moderate-to-high BO and CF correlated with increased risks of mild-to-extremely-severe stress (OR = 4.17 and 2.23, respectively), anxiety (OR = 4.86 and 2.81, respectively) and depression (OR = 5.83 and 3.01, respectively), while moderate-to-high CS correlated with reduced risks of stress (OR = 0.53) and depression (OR = 0.45) only. There were CS and BO differences in groups categorized by marital status and profession. Anxiety increased linearly by seniority < 10, 10– 19 and ≥ 20 years (p for trend < 0.05).Conclusion: In conclusion, the subscales of ProQOL, BO and CF appeared to be associated with increased risks of stress, anxiety and depression among hospital personnel during the COVID-19 epidemic. A long-term contingency program may be needed to adjust work context variables and support emotional well-being of these workers.Keywords: COVID-19, depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale, DASS-21, hospital personnel, professional quality of life, ProQoL

Keywords

• covid-19
• depression
• anxiety and stress scale (dass-21)
• hospital personnel
• professional quality of life (proqol)