Depression in healthcare workers with COVID-19: Prevalence and associated factors

Introduction Since the beginning of the health crisis caused by COVID-19, the impact of the pandemic context on the mental health of healthcare professionals has been widely studied. However, few studies have assessed psychological manifestations in healthcare workers affected by COVID-19. Objectives Determine the prevalence and factors associated with depressive symptoms in healthcare workers with COVID-19. Methods This is a cross-sectional analytical study of health professionals at Farhat Hached University Hospital with COVID-19 over a 6-month period from September 2020 to February 2021. Depressive symptoms were screened using the Depression Subscale of Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS-D). Results Our study included 477 healthcare professionals. The mean age was 39.9 ±10.8 years, with a predominance of women (sex ratio =0.27). Almost a third of the participants were nurses (32.1%), followed by doctors (27.9% of cases). Most of the healthcare workers affected developed a pauci-symptomatic form of the infection (73.8%), with an average confinement time of 14.9±6.9 days. On returning to work, 74 staff (15.5%) noticed that their colleagues were withdrawing from work. According to the HADS-D scale, depressive symptoms were observed in 19.1% of cases. The predictive factors were gender (p<10-3), age (p=0.016), the symptomatic form of COVID-19 (p= 0 ,038), the duration of confinement (p<10-3) and the withdrawn attitude experienced by colleagues on returning to work (p<10-3). Conclusions Our results showed that psychological suffering, particularly depression, among care staff depended on several predictive factors. Psychological support during and even after the period of confinement is therefore necessary Disclosure of Interest None Declared