Depressive symptoms among frontline and non-frontline healthcare providers in response to the COVID-19 pandemic in Kelantan, Malaysia: A cross sectional study

BACKGROUND: Healthcare providers are vulnerable in the fight against COVID-19 and may experience significant psychological and mental health consequences. This study aimed to compare the levels of depressive symptoms among frontline and non-frontline healthcare providers in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. METHODS: A comparative cross-sectional study was conducted in two government hospitals managing COVID-19-related cases in Kelantan, Malaysia from May to July 2020 to identify and compared depressive symptoms levels of frontline and non-frontline healthcare providers. Convenient sampling was applied in the selection of eligible participants and those diagnosed as having any psychiatric illnesses were excluded. The self-administered questionnaires for the Malay versions of the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale to measure depressive symptoms score and the Medical Outcome Study Social Support Survey to measure social support score as an important confounder. A descriptive analysis, independent t-test and ANCOVA were performed using SPSS version 26. RESULTS: A total of 306 respondents from healthcare providers were recruited which 160 were frontline healthcare providers and 146 were non-frontline healthcare providers. The level of depressive symptoms (HADS score >8) was 27.5% for the frontline healthcare providers and 37.7% for the non-frontline healthcare providers. The mean depressive symptoms score for the non-frontline healthcare providers was 0.75 points higher than that of the frontline healthcare providers after adjusting for gender, duration of employment and social support. CONCLUSION: Non-frontline healthcare providers are also experiencing psychological distress during the COVID-19 pandemic even though they do not have direct contact with COVID-19 patients.