Risk factors of developing psychological problems among frontline healthcare professionals working in the COVID-19 pandemic era: a meta-analysis

BACKGROUND: This study sought to evaluate the risk factors behind developing psychological problems as per specific mental health assessment instruments. This study focuses specifically on frontline healthcare professionals of the COVID-19 pandemic era, and evaluated the psychological assessment of frontline healthcare professionals. METHODS: Studies reporting on the psychological assessment of frontline healthcare professionals were retrieved from the PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, Ovid, EBSCO, and Cochrane Library databases. The recommended method was used to assess the risk of bias of the included studies. The random-effects method was applied when significant heterogeneity was observed. RESULTS: The combined results from the 20 included articles indicated that frontline healthcare professionals had a higher risk of developing anxiety in comparison with non-frontline healthcare workers, with similar levels of depression scoring were observed. Healthcare providers aged > 40 years had a lower probability of developing anxiety and seemed to experience minimal depression. Conversely, frontline workers had a higher incidence of anxiety than that of depression. Being single (not in a relationship) could influence the PHQ-9 scores instead of those concerning the GAD-7. The gender gap was not proven to be significantly wide between healthcare professionals with or without anxiety; however, being male was proven to be positively correlated with depression. CONCLUSION: In general, the risk factors for susceptibility to psychological problems among frontline healthcare professionals during the COVID-19 pandemic concerned those of a lower age, being single, being male, and being engage in frontline healthcare work. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12889-023-16820-3.