Mental health status of healthcare workers during COVID 19 pandemic and its correlation with fatigue

Author(s): JSujata 1, Princi Jain2, Kavita Chaudhary2, Gurmeet Kaur2, Pulin Gupta2
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2Department of Medicine, ABVIMS and Dr. RML Hopital, New Delhi, India.
Copyright © JSujata, Princi Jain, Kavita Chaudhary, Gurmeet Kaur, Pulin Gupta. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected both the physical and psychological well-being of those who have been infected or have lost loved ones. Among those most affected are healthcare workers who have been on the frontline throughout the pandemic. This study aims to assess the levels of anxiety and depression among healthcare workers and their association with various demographic parameters. Additionally, we sought to determine the association between the Global Fatigue Index (GFI) and HADS score. Of the participants, 12 (16.22%) had borderline HADS scores (8-10) and 4 (5.41%) had abnormal HADS scores for depression (11-21). Furthermore, 13 (17.57%) had abnormal HADS scores for anxiety. HADS scores for both anxiety and depression were associated with female gender, profession (paramedic staff were more affected than doctors), and income. The GFI was calculated using the Multidimensional Assessment of Fatigue (MAF) score and found to have a positive correlation with various demographic parameters as well as with the HADS score, indicating that psychological stress has an impact on physical well-being and can lead to prolonged fatigue, thereby affecting an individual’s working capacity.

Keywords: COVID-19; Healthcare workers; Anxiety; Depression; Global fatigue index.