BMC Health Services Research (Jun 2022)

Quality of life among health care workers with and without prior COVID-19 infection in Bangladesh

  • Mahfil Ara Rahman,
  • Soumik Kha Sagar,
  • Koustuv Dalal,
  • Sabrina Yesmin Barsha,
  • Tasnim Ara,
  • Md Abdullah Saeed Khan,
  • Shuvajit Saha,
  • Tanjina Sarmin,
  • Mosharop Hossian,
  • Mohammad Hayatun Nabi,
  • Mohammad Lutfor Rahman,
  • Mohammad Delwer Hossain Hawlader

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1186/s12913-022-08174-0
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 22, no. 1
pp. 1 – 12

Abstract

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Abstract Background Health care workers have been facing difficulties in coping with the COVID-19 infection from the beginning. The study aimed to compare Quality of Life (QOL) among health care workers (HCWs) with and without prior COVID-19 disease. Methods This study was conducted from July 2020 to January 2021 among 444 HCWs. We randomly interviewed 3244 participants for our earlier nationwide survey from a list of COVID-19 positive cases after their recovery, and we found 222 HCWs among the respondents. We randomly chose 222 HCWs unaffected by COVID as a comparison group from our selected hospitals. We measured QOL using World Health Organization’s WHOQOL-BREF tool. Physical, psychological, environmental, and social ties were the four areas assessed on a 5-point Likert scale where a higher score suggests better QOL. Due to pandemic restrictions, we used telephonic interviews for data collection. Results A higher QOL score was observed in HCWs with prior COVID-19 infection in all four domains than HCWs without previous COVID-19 conditions. Comorbidity was negatively associated with QOL scores of the physical (p = 0.001) and (p < 0.001) and psychological (p = 0.05, and (p < 0.05) domains for non-COVID and COVID-affected groups, respectively. Current smoking was significantly associated with lower psychological (p = 0.019) and environmental (p = 0.007) QOL scores among HCWs with prior COVID-19 infection. Hospitalization history due to COVID infection was a contributing factor for lower physical QOL scores (p = 0.048). Environmental (p = 0.016) QOL scores were significantly associated with the monthly income in the prior COVID-19 infection group, and physical scores were significantly associated (p = 0.05) with a monthly income in the non-COVID group. Conclusion Governmental and non-governmental stakeholders should focus on potentially modifiable factors to improve health care workers’ quality of life.

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