Health workers' mental health during the Covid-19 pandemic in Brazil

Abstract

Aims: estimate prevalence and factors associated with emotional states related to depression, anxiety and stress in health workers during the period of the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: cross-sectional study with non-probabilistic convenience sampling. Survey carried out from April to August 2020. 492 health workers participated, who were attending the population during the pandemic. An anonymous form was distributed over the internet with a socioeconomic questionnaire and the DASS-21 scale. DASS-21 reliability was 0.95. Descriptive analysis was performed for categorical variables, frequencies and percentages were calculated. Measures of central tendency and dispersion were calculated for continuous variables. Multivariate analysis was performed using crude and adjusted Poisson regression with robust adjustment of variance represented by values of prevalence ratio (PR) and 95% confidence interval (95%CI). To adjust the regression model, the independent variables that were associated with the outcome of p =< 0.20 were taken into account, considered jointly. Selection of model variables was performed using the backward stepwise criterion. Statistical significance was defined as p value <0.05. Results: Most respondents have some level of depression (51.8%), anxiety (53.5%) and stress (57.9%), between medium and extremely severe. Considering only the scores between severe and extremely severe, rates of 17.7% for depression, 29.1% for anxiety and 28.5% for stress were found. Factors such as income, previous psychiatric diagnosis and occupation in technical services were identified as indicators of greater emotional vulnerability. Final considerations: Effects of these injuries in medium and long term are still unknown, and it is necessary to provide emotional support to health workers in order to mitigate possible psychological complications.