A study to assess the level of anxiety and stress among health-care professionals during the early stage of COVID-19 outbreak in Bangladesh: A cross-sectional study

Abstract

Background: The health-care professionals are at high risk of getting infection of COVID-19 due to the highly interactivity of the disease. The virulence of the disease causes huge stress among health-care professionals. Aim: Our study aimed to find out the level of stress and fear among health-care professionals due to COVID-19 outbreak in Bangladesh. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted by using a structured questionnaire containing demographic data, Fear of COVID-19 Scale (FCV-19S), Kessler Psychological Distress Scale, and factor causing stress. A total number of 146 participants, both male and female, were participated in this study. We utilized Google Platform to construct the questionnaire and virtual snowball sampling method to collect the data. Results: The mean age, height, and weight of the participants were 27.52 ± 6.10, 162.53 ± 10.67, and 64.75 ± 10.89, respectively. The mean score of Kessler Psychological Distress Scale was 23.57 ± 5.38, ranging from 27 to 38 and the mean score of FCV-19S was 24.27 ± 6.27, ranging from 7 to 35. The participants those who are living with their family are at significant level of stress (P = 0.041) that they can affect their family members. Conclusion: The health-care professionals are in highly stressed due to the COVID-19 outbreak. Stress management strategies should be taken as a preventive measure to overcome the further serious situation.

Keywords

• covid-19
• cross-sectional study
• health-care professionals
• stress