by Hannah Wozniak, Lamyae Benzakour, Grégory Moullec,
Niccolò Buetti, Alice Nguyen, Sandrine Corbaz, Pauline Roos, Laure Vieux,
Jean-Claude Suard, Rafaël Weissbrodt, Jérôme Pugin, Jacques A. Pralong and Sara
Cereghetti
Annals of
Intensive Care volume 11, Article number: 106, Published: 10
July 2021
Background
Intensive care workers are known for their stressful work
environment and for a high prevalence of mental health outcomes. The aim of
this study was to evaluate the mental health, well-being and changes in
lifestyle among intensive care unit (ICU) healthcare workers (HCW) during the
first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic and to compare these results with those of
HCW in other hospital units. Another objective was to understand which
associated factors aggravate their mental health during the COVID-19 outbreak.
Methods
This cross-sectional survey collected socio-demographic
data, lifestyle changes and mental health evaluations as assessed by the
Generalized Anxiety Disorder 7 items (GAD-7), the Patient Health Questionnaire
9 items (PHQ-9), the Peritraumatic Distress Inventory (PDI) and the World
Health Organization Well-Being Index (WHO-5) from the 28th May to 7th July
2020. The study was carried out at Geneva University Hospitals, a group of
eight public hospitals in Switzerland. ICU HCW were analyzed for mental health
outcomes and lifestyles changes and then compared to non-ICU HCW. A series of
linear regression analyses were performed to assess factors associated with
mental health scores.
Results
A total of 3461 HCW were included in the study, with 352 ICU
HCW. Among ICU HCW, 145 (41%) showed low well-being, 162 (46%) symptoms of
anxiety, 163 (46%) symptoms of depression and 76 (22%) had peritraumatic
distress. The mean scores of GAD-7, PHQ-9 and WHO-5 were worse in ICU HCW
than in non-ICU HCW (p < 0.01). Working in the ICU rather than in other
departments resulted in a change of eating habits, sleeping patterns and
alcohol consumption (p < 0.01). Being a woman, the fear of catching and
transmitting COVID-19, anxiety of working with COVID-19 patients, work
overload, eating and sleeping disorders as well as increased alcohol
consumption were associated with worse mental health outcomes.
Conclusion
This study confirms the suspicion of a high prevalence of
anxiety, depression, peritraumatic distress and low well-being during the first
COVID-19 wave among HCW, especially among ICU HCW. This allows for the
identification of associated risk factors. Long-term psychological follow-up
should be considered for HCW.
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