The Mental Health of Healthcare Staff during the COVID-19 Pandemic: It Depends on How Much They Work and Their Age

Xu, X.; Zhang, S. X.; Afshar Jahanshahi, A.; Li, J.; Bagheri, A.; Nawaser, K.

Background: Healthcare staff are the forefront of fight against COVID-19 and they are under enormous pressure due to the fast growth in the number and severity of infected cases. This creates their mental issues such as distress, depression and anxiety. Exploring healthcare staff's mental health during the pandemic contributes to improving their persistence in the growing challenges created by COVID-19 and enabling effective management of their mental health. Methods: An online survey of 280 healthcare staff in all the 31 provinces of Iran was conducted during April 5 to 20, 2020. The survey assessed staff's distress, depression and anxiety in the COVID-19 pandemic. Results: Nearly a third of healthcare staff suffered from distress, depression and anxiety. Females and more educated healthcare staff were more likely to experience distress. Compared to personnel who did not have COVID-19, those who were unsure whether they had COVID-19 were more likely to experience distress and depression. The number of COVID-19 cases among the staff's colleagues or friends positively predicted their anxiety. Compared to radio technologists, doctors were less likely to experience distress and anxiety. Technicians and obstetrics experienced less anxiety. Analysis the interaction between weekly working days and age of the staff indicated the chance of experiencing distress and depression varied greatly by working days among younger but not older healthcare staff. Conclusion: Exploring the potential predictors of mental health issues assists healthcare organizations to develop approaches to prevent and decrease the issues among staff and improve their task performance in sever crises such as COVID-19, so they can stay motivated in the COVID-19 pandemic. It is useful to identify more working characteristic predictors for healthcare staff at different ages.