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Psychological Distress in South African Healthcare Workers Early in the COVID-19 Pandemic: An Analysis of Associations and Mitigating Factors
While the global COVID-19 pandemic has been widely acknowledged to affect the mental health of health care workers (HCWs), attention to measures that protect those on the front lines of health outbreak response has been limited. In this cross-sectional study, we examine workplace contextual factors...
Autores principales: | , , , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
MDPI
2022
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9368661/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35955078 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19159722 |
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author | Lee, Hsin-Ling Wilson, Kerry S. Bernstein, Colleen Naicker, Nisha Yassi, Annalee Spiegel, Jerry M. |
author_facet | Lee, Hsin-Ling Wilson, Kerry S. Bernstein, Colleen Naicker, Nisha Yassi, Annalee Spiegel, Jerry M. |
author_sort | Lee, Hsin-Ling |
collection | PubMed |
description | While the global COVID-19 pandemic has been widely acknowledged to affect the mental health of health care workers (HCWs), attention to measures that protect those on the front lines of health outbreak response has been limited. In this cross-sectional study, we examine workplace contextual factors associated with how psychological distress was experienced in a South African setting where a severe first wave was being experienced with the objective of identifying factors that can protect against HCWs experiencing negative impacts. Consistent with mounting literature on mental health effects, we found a high degree of psychological distress (57.4% above the General Health Questionnaire cut-off value) and a strong association between perceived risks associated with the presence of COVID-19 in the healthcare workplace and psychological distress (adjusted OR = 2.35, p < 0.01). Our research indicates that both training (adjusted OR 0.41, 95% CI 0.21–0.81) and the reported presence of supportive workplace relationships (adjusted OR 0.52, 95% CI 0.27–0.97) were associated with positive outcomes. This evidence that workplace resilience can be reinforced to better prepare for the onset of similar outbreaks in the future suggests that pursuit of further research into specific interventions to improve resilience is well merited. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-9368661 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2022 |
publisher | MDPI |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-93686612022-08-12 Psychological Distress in South African Healthcare Workers Early in the COVID-19 Pandemic: An Analysis of Associations and Mitigating Factors Lee, Hsin-Ling Wilson, Kerry S. Bernstein, Colleen Naicker, Nisha Yassi, Annalee Spiegel, Jerry M. Int J Environ Res Public Health Article While the global COVID-19 pandemic has been widely acknowledged to affect the mental health of health care workers (HCWs), attention to measures that protect those on the front lines of health outbreak response has been limited. In this cross-sectional study, we examine workplace contextual factors associated with how psychological distress was experienced in a South African setting where a severe first wave was being experienced with the objective of identifying factors that can protect against HCWs experiencing negative impacts. Consistent with mounting literature on mental health effects, we found a high degree of psychological distress (57.4% above the General Health Questionnaire cut-off value) and a strong association between perceived risks associated with the presence of COVID-19 in the healthcare workplace and psychological distress (adjusted OR = 2.35, p < 0.01). Our research indicates that both training (adjusted OR 0.41, 95% CI 0.21–0.81) and the reported presence of supportive workplace relationships (adjusted OR 0.52, 95% CI 0.27–0.97) were associated with positive outcomes. This evidence that workplace resilience can be reinforced to better prepare for the onset of similar outbreaks in the future suggests that pursuit of further research into specific interventions to improve resilience is well merited. MDPI 2022-08-07 /pmc/articles/PMC9368661/ /pubmed/35955078 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19159722 Text en © 2022 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 Lee, Hsin-Ling Wilson, Kerry S. Bernstein, Colleen Naicker, Nisha Yassi, Annalee Spiegel, Jerry M. Psychological Distress in South African Healthcare Workers Early in the COVID-19 Pandemic: An Analysis of Associations and Mitigating Factors |
title | Psychological Distress in South African Healthcare Workers Early in the COVID-19 Pandemic: An Analysis of Associations and Mitigating Factors |
title_full | Psychological Distress in South African Healthcare Workers Early in the COVID-19 Pandemic: An Analysis of Associations and Mitigating Factors |
title_fullStr | Psychological Distress in South African Healthcare Workers Early in the COVID-19 Pandemic: An Analysis of Associations and Mitigating Factors |
title_full_unstemmed | Psychological Distress in South African Healthcare Workers Early in the COVID-19 Pandemic: An Analysis of Associations and Mitigating Factors |
title_short | Psychological Distress in South African Healthcare Workers Early in the COVID-19 Pandemic: An Analysis of Associations and Mitigating Factors |
title_sort | psychological distress in south african healthcare workers early in the covid-19 pandemic: an analysis of associations and mitigating factors |
topic | Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9368661/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35955078 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19159722 |
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