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Alexithymia, Burnout, and Hopelessness in a Large Sample of Healthcare Workers during the Third Wave of COVID-19 in Italy

In the present study, we aimed to assess the frequency of and the relationships between alexithymia, burnout, and hopelessness in a large sample of healthcare workers (HCWs) during the third wave of COVID-19 in Italy. Alexithymia was evaluated by the Italian version of the 20-item Toronto Alexithymi...

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Autores principales: De Berardis, Domenico, Ceci, Anna, Zenobi, Emanuela, Rapacchietta, Dosolina, Pisanello, Manuela, Bozzi, Filippo, Ginaldi, Lia, Marasco, Viviana, Di Giosia, Maurizio, Brucchi, Maurizio, Graffigna, Guendalina, Santambrogio, Jacopo, Ventriglio, Antonio, Mazza, Marianna, Muttillo, Giovanni
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10669783/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/38002510
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/brainsci13111550
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author De Berardis, Domenico
Ceci, Anna
Zenobi, Emanuela
Rapacchietta, Dosolina
Pisanello, Manuela
Bozzi, Filippo
Ginaldi, Lia
Marasco, Viviana
Di Giosia, Maurizio
Brucchi, Maurizio
Graffigna, Guendalina
Santambrogio, Jacopo
Ventriglio, Antonio
Mazza, Marianna
Muttillo, Giovanni
author_facet De Berardis, Domenico
Ceci, Anna
Zenobi, Emanuela
Rapacchietta, Dosolina
Pisanello, Manuela
Bozzi, Filippo
Ginaldi, Lia
Marasco, Viviana
Di Giosia, Maurizio
Brucchi, Maurizio
Graffigna, Guendalina
Santambrogio, Jacopo
Ventriglio, Antonio
Mazza, Marianna
Muttillo, Giovanni
author_sort De Berardis, Domenico
collection PubMed
description In the present study, we aimed to assess the frequency of and the relationships between alexithymia, burnout, and hopelessness in a large sample of healthcare workers (HCWs) during the third wave of COVID-19 in Italy. Alexithymia was evaluated by the Italian version of the 20-item Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20) and its subscales Difficulty in Identifying Feelings (DIF), Difficulty in Describing Feelings (DDF), and Externally Oriented Thinking (EOT), burnout was measured with the scales emotional exhaustion (EE), depersonalisation (DP), and personal accomplishment (PA) of the Maslach Burnout Test (MBI), hopelessness was measured using the Beck Hopelessness Scale (BHS), and irritability (IRR), depression (DEP), and anxiety (ANX) were evaluated with the Italian version of the Irritability‚ Depression‚ Anxiety Scale (IDA). This cross-sectional study recruited a sample of 1445 HCWs from a large urban healthcare facility in Italy from 1 May to 31 June 2021. The comparison between individuals that were positive (n = 214, 14.8%) or not for alexithymia (n = 1231, 85.2%), controlling for age, gender, and working seniority, revealed that positive subjects showed higher scores on BHS, EE, DP IRR, DEP, ANX, DIF, DDF, and EOT and lower on PA than the not positive ones (p < 0.001). In the linear regression model, higher working seniority as well as higher EE, IRR, DEP, ANX, and DDF scores and lower PA were associated with higher hopelessness. In conclusion, increased hopelessness was associated with higher burnout and alexithymia. Comprehensive strategies should be implemented to support HCWs’ mental health and mitigate the negative consequences of alexithymia, burnout, and hopelessness.
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spelling pubmed-106697832023-11-05 Alexithymia, Burnout, and Hopelessness in a Large Sample of Healthcare Workers during the Third Wave of COVID-19 in Italy De Berardis, Domenico Ceci, Anna Zenobi, Emanuela Rapacchietta, Dosolina Pisanello, Manuela Bozzi, Filippo Ginaldi, Lia Marasco, Viviana Di Giosia, Maurizio Brucchi, Maurizio Graffigna, Guendalina Santambrogio, Jacopo Ventriglio, Antonio Mazza, Marianna Muttillo, Giovanni Brain Sci Article In the present study, we aimed to assess the frequency of and the relationships between alexithymia, burnout, and hopelessness in a large sample of healthcare workers (HCWs) during the third wave of COVID-19 in Italy. Alexithymia was evaluated by the Italian version of the 20-item Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20) and its subscales Difficulty in Identifying Feelings (DIF), Difficulty in Describing Feelings (DDF), and Externally Oriented Thinking (EOT), burnout was measured with the scales emotional exhaustion (EE), depersonalisation (DP), and personal accomplishment (PA) of the Maslach Burnout Test (MBI), hopelessness was measured using the Beck Hopelessness Scale (BHS), and irritability (IRR), depression (DEP), and anxiety (ANX) were evaluated with the Italian version of the Irritability‚ Depression‚ Anxiety Scale (IDA). This cross-sectional study recruited a sample of 1445 HCWs from a large urban healthcare facility in Italy from 1 May to 31 June 2021. The comparison between individuals that were positive (n = 214, 14.8%) or not for alexithymia (n = 1231, 85.2%), controlling for age, gender, and working seniority, revealed that positive subjects showed higher scores on BHS, EE, DP IRR, DEP, ANX, DIF, DDF, and EOT and lower on PA than the not positive ones (p < 0.001). In the linear regression model, higher working seniority as well as higher EE, IRR, DEP, ANX, and DDF scores and lower PA were associated with higher hopelessness. In conclusion, increased hopelessness was associated with higher burnout and alexithymia. Comprehensive strategies should be implemented to support HCWs’ mental health and mitigate the negative consequences of alexithymia, burnout, and hopelessness. MDPI 2023-11-05 /pmc/articles/PMC10669783/ /pubmed/38002510 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/brainsci13111550 Text en © 2023 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
De Berardis, Domenico
Ceci, Anna
Zenobi, Emanuela
Rapacchietta, Dosolina
Pisanello, Manuela
Bozzi, Filippo
Ginaldi, Lia
Marasco, Viviana
Di Giosia, Maurizio
Brucchi, Maurizio
Graffigna, Guendalina
Santambrogio, Jacopo
Ventriglio, Antonio
Mazza, Marianna
Muttillo, Giovanni
Alexithymia, Burnout, and Hopelessness in a Large Sample of Healthcare Workers during the Third Wave of COVID-19 in Italy
title Alexithymia, Burnout, and Hopelessness in a Large Sample of Healthcare Workers during the Third Wave of COVID-19 in Italy
title_full Alexithymia, Burnout, and Hopelessness in a Large Sample of Healthcare Workers during the Third Wave of COVID-19 in Italy
title_fullStr Alexithymia, Burnout, and Hopelessness in a Large Sample of Healthcare Workers during the Third Wave of COVID-19 in Italy
title_full_unstemmed Alexithymia, Burnout, and Hopelessness in a Large Sample of Healthcare Workers during the Third Wave of COVID-19 in Italy
title_short Alexithymia, Burnout, and Hopelessness in a Large Sample of Healthcare Workers during the Third Wave of COVID-19 in Italy
title_sort alexithymia, burnout, and hopelessness in a large sample of healthcare workers during the third wave of covid-19 in italy
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10669783/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/38002510
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/brainsci13111550
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