A cross-sectional study to assess the psychosocial impact of COVID-19 pandemic on health-care workers at a tertiary care hospital in India

Abstract

Introduction: Corona virus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has been declared a notified disaster and public health emergency of international concern. Health-care workers (HCWs) who are involved in the care of these COVID patients are at additional risk of developing mental illness themselves due to direct exposure associated with the disease in them leading to this study. Aim: This study aims to assess the psychosocial impact of COVID-19 pandemic on HCW using Screening Questionnaire for Disaster Mental Health (SQD). Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional study was done on 112 HCW in SMS Hospital, Jaipur from June 1, 2020, to June 15, 2020. SQD was used to assess the magnitude of posttraumatic stress disorder and depression in these HCWs who were directly involved in care of COVID-19 patients at some point of time and had no previous history of mental illness. Results: 5.67% HCW were suffering from severe posttraumatic stress disorder and similar 5.67% had severe depression due to COVID-19. Results analyzed by t-test found that, overall, HCWs were mildly affected by COVID-19 in terms of posttraumatic stress disorder (mean value 2.16; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.80–2.53, P = 0.000) and depression (mean value 1.27; 95% CI = 0.97–1.57, P = 0.000) as per SQD scale. Conclusion: The study highlighted that the majority of the HCW were slightly affected by corona pandemic in terms of posttraumatic stress disorder and depression but as corona is still persisting, the need of constant vigilance for its psychosocial impact on them continues. The following core competencies are addressed in this article: Medical knowledge, Professionalism, Practice-based learning and improvement, Systems-based practice.