Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2021 Jun 9;21(1):298.
doi: 10.1186/s12888-021-03291-2.

Associations between the working experiences at frontline of COVID-19 pandemic and mental health of Korean public health doctors

Sangyoon Han #  1 , Sejin Choi #  2   3 , Seung Hyun Cho  4 , Joonhyuk Lee  5 , Je-Yeon Yun  6   7
Affiliations

Associations between the working experiences at frontline of COVID-19 pandemic and mental health of Korean public health doctors

Sangyoon Han et al. BMC Psychiatry. .

Abstract

Background: Demographic, work environmental, and psychosocial features are associated with mental health of healthcare professionals at pandemic frontline. The current study aimed to find predictors of mental health for public health doctors from working experiences at frontline of COVID-19 pandemic.

Methods: With first-come and first-served manner, 350 public health doctors with experiences of work at COVID-19 frontline participated online survey on August 2020. Mental health was defined using the total scores of the Patient Health Questionnaire-9, the Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7, the Perceived Stress Scale, and the Stanford Presenteeism Scale-6. Multivariate logistic regression models of mental health with lowest Akaike Information Criterion were determined among all combinations of working environments, perceived threats and satisfaction at frontline, and demographics that were significant (P < 0.05) in the univariate logistic regression.

Results: Perceived distress, lowered self-efficacy at work, anxiety, and depressive mood were reported by 45.7, 34.6, 11.4, and 15.1% of respondents, respectively. Predictors of poor mental health found in the multivariate logistic regression analyses were environmental (insufficient personal protective equipment, workplace of screening center, prolonged workhours) and psychosocial (fear of infection and death, social stigma and rejection) aspects of working experiences at frontline. Satisfaction of monetary compensation and proactive coping (acceptance and willingness to volunteer at frontline) were predictive of better mental health.

Conclusions: Sufficient supply of personal protective equipment and training on infection prevention at frontline, proper workhours and satisfactory monetary compensation, and psychological supports are required for better mental health of public health doctors at frontline of COVID-19 pandemic.

Keywords: Anxiety; COVID-19; Depression; Health personnel; Mental health.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Flow chart of the study: recruitment & method of data collection
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Li Q, Guan X, Wu P, Wang X, Zhou L, Tong Y, Ren R, Leung KSM, Lau EHY, Wong JY, Xing X, Xiang N, Wu Y, Li C, Chen Q, Li D, Liu T, Zhao J, Liu M, Tu W, Chen C, Jin L, Yang R, Wang Q, Zhou S, Wang R, Liu H, Luo Y, Liu Y, Shao G, Li H, Tao Z, Yang Y, Deng Z, Liu B, Ma Z, Zhang Y, Shi G, Lam TTY, Wu JT, Gao GF, Cowling BJ, Yang B, Leung GM, Feng Z. Early transmission dynamics in Wuhan, China, of novel coronavirus-infected pneumonia. N Engl J Med. 2020;382(13):1199–1207. doi: 10.1056/NEJMoa2001316. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Khan MMA, Khan MN, Mustagir MG, Rana J, Islam MS, Kabir MI. Effects of underlying morbidities on the occurrence of deaths in COVID-19 patients: a systematic review and meta-analysis. J Glob Health. 2020;10(2):020503. doi: 10.7189/jogh.10.020503. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Eurosurveillance Editorial T. Note from the editors: World Health Organization declares novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) sixth public health emergency of international concern. Euro Surveillance. 2020;25(5):200131e. 10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2020.25.5.200131e. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Choi S. A hidden key to COVID-19 Management in Korea: public health doctors. J Prev Med Public Health. 2020;53(3):175–177. doi: 10.3961/jpmph.20.105. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Neto MLR, Almeida HG, Esmeraldo JD, Nobre CB, Pinheiro WR, de Oliveira CRT, Sousa IDC, Lima O, Lima NNR, Moreira MM, et al. When health professionals look death in the eye: the mental health of professionals who deal daily with the 2019 coronavirus outbreak. Psychiatry Res. 2020;288:112972. doi: 10.1016/j.psychres.2020.112972. - DOI - PMC - PubMed

Publication types