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
. 2022 Nov 3:10:917128.
doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2022.917128. eCollection 2022.

Quality of life among health care workers in Arab countries 2 years after COVID-19 pandemic

Ramy Mohamed Ghazy  1 , Osman Abubakar Fiidow  2 , Fatimah Saed Alabd Abdullah  3 , Iffat Elbarazi  4 , Ismail Ibrahim Ismail  5 , Sulafa Tarek Alqutub  6 , Etwal Bouraad  7   8 , Esraa Abdellatif Hammouda  9 , Mohamed Mostafa Tahoun  10 , Silmane Mehdad  11 , Rasha Ashmawy  12 , Abdulla Zamzam  13 , Osama Mohamed Elhassan  14 , Qasim Mohamed Al Jahdhami  15 , Hind Bouguerra  16 , Wafaa Kammoun Rebai  17 , Lina Yasin  18 , Esraa Mustafa Jaradat  19 , Yasir Ahmed Mohammed Elhadi  20 , Malik Sallam  21   22   23
Affiliations

Quality of life among health care workers in Arab countries 2 years after COVID-19 pandemic

Ramy Mohamed Ghazy et al. Front Public Health. .

Abstract

Background: Assessment of the quality of life (QoL) among healthcare workers (HCWs) is vital for better healthcare and is an essential indicator for competent health service delivery. Since the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic strike, the frontline position of HCWs subjected them to tremendous mental and psychological burden with a high risk of virus acquisition.

Aim: This study evaluated the QoL and its influencing factors among HCWs residing in the Arab countries.

Methods: This was a cross-sectional study using a self-administered online questionnaire based on the World Health Organization QoL-BREF instrument with additional questions related to COVID-19. The study was conducted in three different languages (Arabic, English, and French) across 19 Arab countries between February 22 and March 24, 2022.

Results: A total of 3,170 HCWs were included in the survey. The majority were females (75.3%), aged 18-40 years (76.4%), urban residents (90.4%), married (54.5%), and were living in middle-income countries (72.0%). The mean scores of general health and general QoL were 3.7 ± 1.0 and 3.7 ± 0.9, respectively. Those who attained average physical, psychological, social, and environmental QoL were 40.8, 15.4, 26.2, and 22.3%, respectively. The income per capita and country income affected the mean scores of all QoL domains. Previous COVID-19 infection, having relatives who died of COVID-19, and being vaccinated against COVID-19 significantly affected the mean scores of different domains.

Conclusion: A large proportion of the Arab HCWs evaluated in this study had an overall poor QoL. More attention should be directed to this vulnerable group to ensure their productivity and service provision.

Keywords: COVID-19; health personnel; healthcare providers; professional quality of life; satisfaction.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Country of residence of the respondents.
Figure 2
Figure 2
The correlation between different domains of quality of life (QoL), general health, and general QoL.
Figure 3
Figure 3
One-way multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) in testing the effect of income on QoL different domains. Bonferroni's method adjustments for the number of comparisons were applied. **p < 0.001.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. World Health Organization . WHO Director-General's Opening Remarks at the Media Briefing on COVID-19-−11 March 2020. Available online at: https://www.who.int/director-general/speeches/detail/who-director-genera... (accessed April 1, 2022).
    1. Asem N, Ramadan A, Hassany M, Ghazy RM, Abdallah M, Ibrahim M, et al. . Pattern and determinants of COVID-19 infection and mortality across countries: an ecological study. Heliyon. (2021) 7:e07504. 10.1016/j.heliyon.2021.e07504 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Hassaan MA, Abdelwahab RG, Elbarky TA, Ghazy RM. GIS-based analysis framework to identify the determinants of COVID-19 incidence and fatality in Africa. J Prim Care Community Health. (2021) 12:21501327211041208. 10.1177/21501327211041208 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. World Health Organization . WHO Coronavirus (COVID-19) Dashboard. WHO Coronavirus (COVID-19) Dashboard With Vaccination Data. Available online at: https://covid19.who.int/ (accessed April 1, 2022).
    1. Ghazy RM, Ashmawy R, Hamdy NA, Elhadi YAM, Reyad OA, Elmalawany D, et al. . Efficacy and effectiveness of SARS-CoV-2 vaccines: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Vaccines. (2022) 10:350. 10.3390/vaccines10030350 - DOI - PMC - PubMed