Which of us were more affected by the pandemic? The psychiatric impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on healthcare professionals in the province where the first quarantine units were established in Turkey

Abstract

Introduction: Psychiatric problems, such as stress and anxiety disorders, are encountered amongst healthcare professionals fighting epidemics. Considering that COVID-19 suddenly became a pandemic and healthcare professionals have not had access to sufficient information, it is a fact that healthcare professionals have been affected on a large scale. Heavy workloads, insufficient equipment and anxiety over families increase this impact. We aimed to investigate the extent to which healthcare professionals have been psychologically affected by COVID-19 and related factors.

Methodology: Data obtained through questionnaires completed by 348 healthcare professionals working during the COVID-19 pandemic and 350 participants who are in the control group were investigated. The Impact of Event Scale-revised (IES-R) for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and the Severity Index (ISI) for insomnia were used. Differences regarding gender, occupation, age group, marital status and sub-groups were statistically analysed.

Results: Of the 348 healthcare professionals, 176 (50.6%) were women and 172 (49.4%) men, while 190 (54.6%) were doctors and 158 (45.4%) nurses. The incidence of PTSD was statistically significantly higher in the healthcare professionals group than in the control group (P < .001). The incidence of PTSD was statistically significantly higher amongst nurses (P = .001), women (P = .002) and those who were married (P = .007). Both PTSD and insomnia were found to be statistically significantly higher amongst those working in the "area of final diagnosis" (P = .016 and P = .002, respectively).

Conclusions: The determination of the groups most affected amongst professionals working in epidemics is important for the planning of in-service training and psychological support studies. If the fight against pandemics includes health teams with strong psychological grounding, it leads to qualified medical care for patients.