Original title: Mental Health Outcomes Among Frontline and Second-Line Health Care Workers During the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) Pandemic in Italy
Researchers surveyed 1,379 health workers in Italy during a few days in March 2020. They asked about post-traumatic stress symptoms, depression, anxiety, insomnia and stress. Nearly half reported post-traumatic stress symptoms, and about one in four reported severe depression. Younger age, being a woman, working on the front line, and having a colleague who died, was hospitalised or was quarantined were linked with worse outcomes.
Imagine a hospital team trying to keep everyone going during a sudden rush of patients. Some workers are closer to the busiest rooms, and some are also coping with the illness or loss of a colleague. In this paper, the busy rooms stand for frontline work, while the strain on each worker stands for the mental health outcomes the survey asked about.
Health workers caring for people during a pandemic can face serious mental health strain themselves. Knowing which groups were more often linked to poor outcomes can help guide attention toward workers who may need support.
The survey was online and spread through social networks, so its respondents may not represent all health workers in Italy. The results describe reports collected over a few days in March 2020 and show associations, not proof that the listed factors caused poor mental health. The abstract does not report later outcomes or explain the assessment tools in detail.
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Mental Health Outcomes Among Frontline and Second-Line Health Care Workers During the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) Pandemic in Italy — Rodolfo Rossi, Valentina Socci, Francesca Pacitti et al. — JAMA Network Open — doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2020.10185
Abstract licence: CC BY
Explanation generated by Synthesis from the abstract — it is not the original paper.