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Psychiatric Disorder Prevalence High Among COVID-19 Health Care Workers
Health care workers have experienced a high prevalence of anxiety, depression, sleep disorders, and trauma-related disorders during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to 2 separate systematic reviews and meta-analyses.
Researchers from the Greater Paris University Hospitals, France, published one set of findings in Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews. Using data from 70 studies, they found the following pooled prevalence of each disorder: 30% for anxiety, 31.1 % for depression, 56.5 % for acute stress, 20.5% for post-traumatic stress, and 44.0 % for sleep disorders.
"In the emergency context of the COVID-19 pandemic, health care workers are exposed to potentially traumatic or stress factors: unpredictability of daily caseloads, having to frequently manage patients and their families’ expectations in unexpected situations, the making-decision burden, high daily fatality rates, and constant updates of hospital procedures," researchers said in the study. "Lack of social support is also an important adverse factor for health care workers’ mental health enhanced by quarantine, perceived stigmatization, and fear of contaminating relatives."
"For health care workers’ well-being and the quality of care during the pandemic, targeted prevention and psychological support should be provided to this population during such situations."
For Frontline Workers, Mental Health Risks During COVID-19 Comparable to 9/11
Findings from another study, published online in PLOS ONE by researchers at the International Centre for Evidence in Disability, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, London, United Kingdom, confirmed these findings.
Those researchers analyzed data from 65 studies that included 97,333 health care workers across 21 countries. Every analyzed study used self-reporting mental health screening tools that identify symptoms of common mental disorders.
Researchers broke down the results into moderate and mild classifications of the disorder. They found a pooled prevalence of: 22.1% for moderate anxiety, 21.7% for moderate depression, and 21.5% for moderate PTSD.
The pooled prevalence of mild depression was 36.1% and mild anxiety was 38.3%. Not enough studies were present to analyze the prevalence of mild PTSD among health care workers properly.
"The response from policymakers and service providers must be decisive and swift, addressing mental health concerns in this group, before long-term health and social impacts are realized," researchers said in the study.
—Meagan Thistle
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