COVID-19 and Brazilian healthcare professionals: a cross-sectional survey of perceptions and feelings during pandemics in one of the top three most-affected countries.

Corrêa, Roberta Pires; Castro, Helena Carla; Quaresma, Bruna Maria Castro Salomão; Stephens, Paulo Roberto Soares; Araujo-Jorge, Tania Cremonini; Ferreira, Roberto Rodrigues

BACKGROUND The importance of the health professionals is recognized for COVID-19 pandemic affected-countries, especially those such as Brazil, one of the top three countries more affected in the world. However, the perception of the stress on these workers and the changes that the pandemic has caused in their lives could vary according to the conditions offered by these affected countries, including salaries, individual protection equipment and psychological support. OBJECTIVE Our purpose is to identify the perceptions of Brazilian health workers regarding the COVID-19 pandemic impact on their lives, including possible self-contamination and mental health. METHODS This cross-sectional online survey was conducted in Brazil by applying a 32-item questionnaire, including multiple-choice, using the Google Forms electronic assessment. The study was designed to capture spontaneous perceptions from health professionals. All questions were mandatory and divided into two blocks with different proposals: personal profile, and COVID-19 pandemic impact. RESULTS We interviewed Brazilian health professionals from all five Brazilian regions (n=1,376). Our study revealed that 1 in 5 (23%) complained about missing PPE, including face shield (17%), masks (15%), and lab coat (10%), whereas 1 in 4 health professionals did not have enough information to protect themselves from the coronavirus disease. These professionals had anxiety due to COVID-19 (44%), difficulties in sleep (43%) and, concentrating on work (33%). Almost one third experienced traumatic situations at work (28%) which may lead to negative feelings of fear of COVID-19 and sadness. Despite this situation, there is hope and empathy among their positive feelings. The survey also showed that 1 in 5 got COVID-19 with most classic and minor symptoms, including headache (86%), body pain (75%), tiredness (74%), and loss of taste and smell (55%). Some of their negative feelings were higher than those of not infected professionals (fear of COVID-19 77% vs. 48%), (impotence 45% vs. 28%) and fault (12% vs. 5%), respectively. Another worrying outcome is that 61% reported getting an infection while working at a health facility and as expected most of the respondents (70%) felt affected (25%) or very affected (45 %) by the COVID-19. CONCLUSIONS In Brazil, the health professionals revealed to be exposed to a stressful situation and to the risk of self-contamination, conditions that prospect future psychological problems for these workers. According to our survey, the psychological support for this group should be included in future health planning of Brazil and other hugely affected countries to assure a good mental health condition to the medical teams in near future.