The effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on the mental health of Indian health care workers

Abstract

Introduction: In the fight against the 2019 novel coronavirus (COVID-19), medical workers in India have been facing enormous pressure. Facing this critical situation, health care workers on the front line are likely to undergo psychological distress both, short term and long-term. Aim: The aim of this study was to determine the overall impact of COVID-19 outbreak on health care workers in terms of Anxiety, Depression, Insomnia, and Psychological Distress along with identifying how Perceived social support contributed to an individual’s overall Psychological Distress. This study aimed to provide a better understanding of the mental health burden of Indian health care workers.  Methodology: The study is a hospital-based survey conducted at Sir H.N. Reliance Hospital and Research Centre. A convenience sample of 200 (100 Patient Facing and 100 non-patients facing) participants from the hospital was selected for the study. Participants were both males and females. The age range of the participants is between 20 to 60 years. The degree of symptoms was assessed by The Beck Depression Inventory (BDI-II), The Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale (HAM-A), Insomnia Severity Index (ISI), The Kessler Psychological Distress Scale (K10), and Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support respectively. A multifactorial Analysis of variance (ANOVA) along with Correlational analysis. Results: There was higher prevalence of distress among nurses than in doctors. Statistical analysis indicated that there was a significant difference in the depression scores of health care workers who were seeing patient’s vs health care workers who were not seeing any patients. Higher levels of perceived social support among health care workers was negatively correlated with depression. However, the reverse could be true where people with lower depressive features show high perceived social support as the two were reciprocally related.