The Effects of COVID-19 Pandemic on the Mental Health of Healthcare Workers and Recommendations for Preventing Loss of Work Efficiency

Abstract

Objective: We aimed to evaluate the effect of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic on the mental health conditions of healthcare workers and raise awareness regarding the measures to be taken in this regard. Materials and Methods: A group of total 435 healthcare professionals, including 52.2% women, who worked in the pandemic clinics, were enrolled. The Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) was administered using a web-based questionnaire system. We divided the healthcare workers into the following three groups: physicians, nurses, and other auxiliary healthcare workers, and compared their HADS-A and HADS-D scores. We grouped the healthcare workers as per their departments and years of professional experience and compared the HADS-A and HADS-D scores of the groups. Results: The mean patient age was 34.34±8.34 y. Further, 25.7% had received professional mental support, and 18.6% started undergoing professional psychological therapy for the first time in their lives owing to the psychological effects of the COVID-19 pandemic process. Healthcare workers were assessed for anxiety and depression using the HADS; 43.4% of them had anxiety and 65.1% had depression. Conclusion: The present study stated that