Impact of viral epidemic outbreaks on mental health of healthcare workers: a rapid systematic review

Ignacio Ricci Cabello; Jose F Meneses Echavez; Maria Jesus Serrano-Ripoll; David Fraile-Navarro; Maria Antonia Fiol de Roque; Guadalupe Pastor Moreno; Adoracion Castro; Isabel Ruiz Perez; Rocio Zamanillo Campos; Daniela Goncalves-Bradley

Park 2018 (28) MERS PTSD (PCL-C) 20.59% showed PTSD symptoms. The sample had a mean PCL-C score of 30±9.95. The differences in the scores of doctors and nurses with different genders, ages, professional titles, contact frequencies, trainings, and experiences were statistically significant (P<0.05, P<0.01). Moreover, ttests and one-way analysis of variance showed that nurses received higher scores than doctors, female participants received higher scores than male participants, and the participants with low professional title and high contact frequency, aged between 20 years and30 years, with less than five years of work experience, having not received related training and with no related experience obtained higher PCL-C scores than the others (P<0.05, P<0.01). The results of multinomial regression analyses showed that, with other relevant factors controlled for, being single, having been quarantined during the outbreak, having been exposed to other traumatic events before SARS, and perceived SARS-related risk level during the outbreak were found to increase the odds of having a high level of depressive symptoms 3 years later. Altruistic acceptance of risk during the outbreak was found to decrease the odds of high post-outbreak depressive symptom levels The lifetime prevalence of any depressive, anxiety, or substance use diagnosis was 30%. Only one HCW who identified the SARS experience as a traumatic event was diagnosed as having PTSD. New episodes of psychiatric disorders occurred among seven healthcare workers (5%). New episodes of psychiatric disorders were directly associated with a history of having a psychiatric disorder before the SARS outbreak (P=0.02) and inversely associated with years of healthcare experience (P=0.03) and the perceived adequacy of training and support (P=0.03).