Coronavirus anxiety as a predictor of burnout, depressive symptoms and insomnia among professionally active nurses: a preliminary report

PURPOSE: A preliminary assessment of the direct association between coronavirus anxiety and burnout syndrome, depressive symptoms and insomnia among nurses in the context of selected work-related factors. METHODS: This is a cross-sectional study. Fifty professionally active nurses were recruited from various psychiatric facilities and asked to fill out a set of questionnaires: the authors’ survey on sociodemographic data, the Coronavirus Anxiety Scale (CAS), the Maslach Burnout Inventory – General Survey (MBI-GS), the revised version of the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CESD-R), and the Athens Insomnia Scale (AIS). Linear regression models were constructed to predict the AIS, CESD-R and MBI-GS dimensions scores, with the CAS score as a predictor. The models were adjusted for sex, marital status, place of residence, length of service and working hours per week. RESULTS: A rise in the CAS score was associated with rises in the CESD-R, MBI Exhaustion and MBI Cynicism scores. The effects were of similar size regardless of whether models were adjusted or unadjusted. Unadjusted and adjusted models predicting AIS total scores and MBI-Efficacy score were not fit to empirical data. In these models, the CAS score was not found to be significantly associated with the AIS and MBI-Efficacy scores. CONCLUSIONS: The severity of coronavirus anxiety contributed to the severity of depressive symptoms, cynicism and exhaustion among nurses. The ability to cope effectively with fear of being infected with SARS-CoV-2 may be crucial in preventing and mitigating other mental health sequelae.