Systematic Review of Mind-Body Modalities to Manage the Mental Health of Healthcare Workers during the COVID-19 Era

Abstract

Healthcare workers (HCWs) have suffered physical and psychological threats since the beginning of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Mind-body modalities (MBMs) can reduce the long-term adverse health effects associated with COVID-specific chronic stress. This systematic review aims to investigate the role of MBMs in managing the mental health of HCWs during the COVID-19 pandemic. A comprehensive search was conducted using 6 electronic databases, resulting in 18 clinical studies from 2019 to September 2021. Meta-analysis showed that MBMs significantly improved the perceived stress of HCWs (standardized mean difference, -0.37; 95% confidence intervals, -0.53 to -0.21). In addition, some MBMs had significant positive effects on psychological trauma, burnout, insomnia, anxiety, depression, self-compassion, mindfulness, quality of life, resilience, and well-being, but not psychological trauma and self-efficacy of HCWs. This review provides data supporting the potential of some MBMs to improve the mental health of HCWs during COVID-19. However, owing to poor methodological quality and heterogeneity of interventions and outcomes of the included studies, further high-quality clinical trials are needed on this topic in the future.

Keywords: COVID-19; healthcare personnel; mental health; mind-body therapies; pandemics.

Figure 1

PRISMA flow chart of this review.

Figure 2

Meta-analysis results of Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale: (a) stress; (b) depression; and (c) anxiety. Note. *, non-randomized controlled clinical trials.