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 15;21(1):308.
doi: 10.1186/s12888-021-03311-1.

Emotional responses and perceived stressors of frontline medical staffs in case of COVID-19 treatment centers and obstetrics emergency in Ethiopia

Mebratu Abraha Kebede  1 , Dereje Bayissa Demissie  2 , Dessalegn Kenay Guddu  3 , Michael Temane Haile  4 , Zebenay Workneh Bitew  4 , Mahteme Bekele Muleta  5
Affiliations

Emotional responses and perceived stressors of frontline medical staffs in case of COVID-19 treatment centers and obstetrics emergency in Ethiopia

Mebratu Abraha Kebede et al. BMC Psychiatry. .

Abstract

Background: the rapid spread of COVID-19, its lethality in severe cases and the absence of specific medicine poses a huge threat to human life and health, as well as huge impact on the mental health. Facing this critical situation, health care workers on the front line who are directly involved in the diagnosis, treatment, and care of patients with COVID-19 are at risk of developing psychological distress and other mental health symptoms including emotional disturbance.

Objective: the aim of this study will be to assess the current state of emotional responses and perceived stressors of frontline medical staffs in case of Addis Ababa COVID-19 Treatment Centers and obstetrics emergency and abortion care, Ethiopia 2020.

Methods: Hospital based comparative cross-section study design was conducted by using self-administered questionnaire survey from June 1st to 30th of 2020 among 133 and 266 frontline medical staffs from obstetric emergency and abortion care clinic and COVID-19 treatment centers respectively. The data were collected after getting written consent from each participant and it entered into the computer using Epi-data version 7, then exported to SPSS version 20 for further analysis. Descriptive analysis was done using frequencies & percent. All independent determinants with P-value < 0.05 were used to identify important predictors of emotional responses and perceived stressors.

Result: A total of 399 frontline medical staffs were included in the study. The mean age of the respondents of those who were working in obstetrics emergency and abortion care clinic was 27.47 (SD, 3.46) years and it was 28.12 (SD, 4.09) years for the other groups. This study revealed that, 72.9 and 5.6% of the study participant from obstetrics emergency and abortion clinic and COVID-19 treatment centers had a positive emotional response, respectively. Factors such as having a low level of motivational factors (AOR 2.78, 95% CI (1.13, 6.84)), being a nurse (AOR 10.53, 95% CI (1.31, 85.26)) and working at triage (AOR 8.61, 95% CI (1.15, 64.81))) had statistically significant association with negative emotional response.

Conclusion: The current study revealed that a high proportion of front line a negative emotional responses had negative emotional response. Further, almost all of the medical staffs working in COVID-19 treatment centers and at obstetrics emergency and abortion care unit had perceived the outbreak related stressors. So, providing comprehensive psychological support is warranted for health care providers working in such kinds of department or units.

Keywords: Addis Ababa COVID-19 treatment centers; Emotional responses; Front line medical staffs; Perceived stressors.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

All authors read and approved the final manuscript. The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Level of emotional response among front line medical staffs working at obstetrics/abortion clinic and COVID-19 treatment centers, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 2020
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Level of perceived stressor status among front line medical staffs working at obstetrics/abortion clinic and COVID-19 treatment centers, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 2020
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. World Health Organization. Surveillance case definitions for human infection with novel coronavirus ( nCoV) : interim guidance, 2020. World Health Organization. https://apps.who.int/iris/handle/10665/330376.
    1. Medicine SEGfCotEoNCPotCP An update on the epidemiological characteristics of novel coronavirus pneumonia (COVID-19) Chin J Epidemiol. 2020;41(2):139–144. doi: 10.3760/cma.j.issn.0254-6450.2020.02.002. - DOI - PubMed
    1. WHO WC-OU. 2020.
    1. Gao JL ZP, Jia YN, et al Mental health problems and social media exposure during COVID-19 outbreak. 2020. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Khalid IKT, Qabajah MR, et al. Healthcare workers emotions, perceived stressors and coping strategies during a MERS-CoV outbreak. Clin Med Res. 2016;14(1):7–14. doi: 10.3121/cmr.2016.1303. - DOI - PMC - PubMed

Publication types