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. 2022 Jan-Dec:59:469580221096278.
doi: 10.1177/00469580221096278.

Protective Behaviors for COVID-19 Were Associated With Fewer Psychological Impacts on Nurses: A Cross-Sectional Study in Taiwan

Chia-Chi Yen  1   2   3 , Min-Ho Chan  2   4 , Wei-Chun Lin  5 , Shu-Chuan Jennifer Yeh  2
Affiliations

Protective Behaviors for COVID-19 Were Associated With Fewer Psychological Impacts on Nurses: A Cross-Sectional Study in Taiwan

Chia-Chi Yen et al. Inquiry. 2022 Jan-Dec.

Abstract

Objective: The COVID-19 pandemic has increased psychological distress among common people and has caused health care providers, such as nurses, to experience tremendous stress.

Methods: This prospective cross-sectional study assessed the psychological impacts on nurses in a community hospital in Taiwan, including major depressive disorder (MDD), posttraumatic stress (PTS), and pessimism. According to transactional theory, coping strategies and personal factors have psychological impacts. We hypothesized that behavioral responses to COVID-19 (problem-focused coping) are more effective in reducing psychological impacts than emotional responses to COVID-19 (emotion-focused coping). Independent variables were the use of behavioral and emotional coping strategies for COVID-19 and 3 personal factors, namely sleep disturbance, physical component summary (PCS-12), and mental component summary (MCS-12) of the 12-Item Short Form Health Survey (SF-12) obtained from the Medical Outcomes Study. Dependent variables comprised 3 psychological impacts, namely MDD, PTS, and pessimism.

Results: We determined that behavioral coping strategies had significant negative effects on PTS and pessimism; however, emotional coping strategies had significantly positive effects on PTS and pessimism. Sleep disturbance was significantly associated with increased MDD and pessimism. PCS-12 had a significant negative effect on PTS, whereas MCS-12 was not significantly associated with any of the 3 psychological impacts.

Conclusions: Nurses who adopted protective behavior against COVID-19, such as washing hands, wearing masks, avoiding touching eyes, and mouth, and avoiding personal contact, were associated with less posttraumatic stress and pessimism. Healthcare providers should consider strategies for improving preventive behaviors to help ease their worries and fears concerning COVID-19.

Keywords: COVID-19; coping strategies; cross-sectional study; depression; posttraumatic stress.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of Conflicting Interests: The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
The conceptual framework of relationship between COVID-19. Stress, coping behaviors, personal resources, and psychological impacts among nurses.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Severity of psychological impacts.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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