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. 2022 Nov 25:10:997626.
doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2022.997626. eCollection 2022.

Effects of COVID-19-related psychological distress and anxiety on quality of sleep and life in healthcare workers in Iran and three European countries

Morteza Zangeneh Soroush  1   2   3   4 , Parisa Tahvilian  3   4 , Sepideh Koohestani  5 , Keivan Maghooli  3   4 , Nader Jafarnia Dabanloo  3   4 , Mojtaba Sarhangi Kadijani  6 , Sepehr Jahantigh  7 , Masoud Zangeneh Soroush  8 , Amitis Saliani  9
Affiliations

Effects of COVID-19-related psychological distress and anxiety on quality of sleep and life in healthcare workers in Iran and three European countries

Morteza Zangeneh Soroush et al. Front Public Health. .

Abstract

Introduction: The COVID-19 pandemic has considerably affected human beings most of whom are healthcare workers (HCWs) combating the disease in the front line.

Methods: This cross-sectional study aims to explore the effects of stress and anxiety caused by COVID-19 on the quality of sleep and life in HCWs, including physicians, nurses, and other healthcare staff. In this global study, we asked 1,210 HCWs (620 and 590 volunteers from Iran and European countries, including Germany, the Netherlands, and Italy, respectively), who age 21-70, to participate in the test. Several measures of COVID-related stress, anxiety, sleep, and life quality, including the 12-item General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12), Fear of COVID-19 scale (FCV-19S), Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI), the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), and World Health Organization Quality of Life-BREF (WHOQOL-BREF) are recorded.

Results: Volunteers reported high rates of stress and anxiety and poor sleep quality as well as lower quality of life. The correlation analysis between the measures is reported. According to the results, regardless of the location, HCWs, predominantly female nurses, developed anxiety and stress symptoms which consequently resulted in lower sleep and life quality. Both for Iranian and the European HCWs, significant differences existed between nurses and the other two groups, with the p-values equal to 0.0357 and 0.0429 for GHQ-12, 0.0368, and 0.714 for BAI measure. Even though nurses reported the most stress, anxiety, fear of COVID-19, lower quality of life and sleep in both countries, and also an increase in other measures as well, there existed no statistically significant difference in FCV-19S, PSQI, and WHOQOL-BREF.

Discussion: This study helps to expand our knowledge the effects of pandemics on HCWs and also for healthcare management to predict HCW's mental health conditions in similar situations.

Keywords: COVID-19 pandemic; anxiety; healthcare workers; quality of life; sleep quality; stress.

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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
Pie charts representing more details about the participants. (A) Male HCWs from Iran in our previously considered age groups. (B) Female HCWs from Iran in age groups. (C) Male HCWs from the studied European countries. (D) Female HCWs from the European countries. (E) The total number of male HCWs in Iran and the European countries. (F) The total number of female HCWs in Iran and the European countries. (G) Sum of all HCWs who participated in this study from Iran and the European countries. (H) The number of male participants vs. the number of female participants in Iran. (I) The number of male participants vs. the number of female participants in the European countries. (J) The total number of all male participants vs. the total number of all female participants in Iran and the European countries.
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