Institute of Occupational, Social and Environmental Medicine, Centre for Health and Society, Faculty of Medicine, University of Duesseldorf, Duesseldorf, Germany.
Institute of Experimental Psychology, Department of Clinical Psychology, University of Duesseldorf, Duesseldorf, Germany.
PLoS One. 2021 Jan 14;16(1):e0245473. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0245473. eCollection 2021.
The SARS-CoV-2 virus has spread rapidly around the globe since December 2019 creating much uncertainty among medical staff. Due to close patient contact, medical assistants are at increased risk of an infection. Several studies have investigated psychological consequences of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic on medical staff, yet studies in the outpatient setting are scarce and studies addressing medical assistants are lacking. This study aimed to investigate pandemic-related stressors, attitudes, and work outcomes among medical assistants and to identify possible determinants.
The population under study were medical assistants across entire Germany. A self-devised online questionnaire was published between April 7th, 2020, and April 14th. including questions on pandemic-related stressors, attitudes and work outcomes. Additionally, symptoms of depression and anxiety disorder were measured by PHQ-2 and GAD-2, respectively. Logistic regression was performed to identify possible determinants.
2150 medical assistants provided complete data (98.0% female, mean age 37.6 years). Major stressors were uncertainty about the temporal scope of the pandemic (95.1% agreement), about how to act correctly (77.5%), feelings of not being allowed to let patients down (75.9%), uncertainty about one's financial situation (67.4%) and about contact persons for further information (67.1%). One third (29.9%) of the study population screened positively for depression and 42.6% for anxiety disorder. Feeling burdened by one's financial situation was significantly associated with working in specialist practices (1.32 [1.08-1.62]), caring for children (1.51 [1.22-1.87]), depression (1.28 [1.01-1.62]), and anxiety disorder (1.93 [1.55-2.39]). Feeling burdened by thoughts about virus contraction at work was also significantly associated with working in specialist practices (1.33 [1.07-1.64]), caring for children (1.33 [1.07-1.66]), depression (1.54 [1.18-2.00]), and anxiety (4.71 [3.71-5.98]).
This study provides novel evidence regarding major SARS-CoV-2 pandemic-related stressors among medical assistants and suggests need for special support for medical assistants caring for children and working in specialist practices.
自 2019 年 12 月以来，SARS-CoV-2 病毒在全球范围内迅速传播，给医务人员带来了极大的不确定性。由于与患者密切接触，医疗助理感染的风险增加。有几项研究调查了 SARS-CoV-2 大流行对医务人员的心理影响，但在门诊环境中的研究很少，针对医疗助理的研究也很少。本研究旨在调查医疗助理在 SARS-CoV-2 大流行期间的压力源、态度和工作结果，并确定可能的决定因素。
研究对象为德国各地的医疗助理。我们于 2020 年 4 月 7 日至 4 月 14 日期间发布了一份自行设计的在线问卷，其中包括有关大流行相关压力源、态度和工作结果的问题。此外，通过 PHQ-2 和 GAD-2 分别测量抑郁和焦虑障碍的症状。采用逻辑回归识别可能的决定因素。
2150 名医疗助理提供了完整的数据（98.0%为女性，平均年龄 37.6 岁）。主要压力源是对大流行时间范围的不确定性（95.1%的人同意）、如何正确行动（77.5%）、感到不允许让患者失望（75.9%）、对自己的财务状况的不确定性（67.4%）和对进一步信息的联系人的不确定性（67.1%）。研究人群中有三分之一（29.9%）的人筛查出患有抑郁症，42.6%的人筛查出患有焦虑症。感到经济负担过重与在专科诊所工作（1.32[1.08-1.62]）、照顾孩子（1.51[1.22-1.87]）、抑郁（1.28[1.01-1.62]）和焦虑障碍（1.93[1.55-2.39]）显著相关。对工作中感染病毒的想法感到负担过重也与在专科诊所工作（1.33[1.07-1.64]）、照顾孩子（1.33[1.07-1.66]）、抑郁（1.54[1.18-2.00]）和焦虑（4.71[3.71-5.98]）显著相关。
本研究提供了 SARS-CoV-2 大流行期间医疗助理主要压力源的新证据，并表明需要为照顾孩子和在专科诊所工作的医疗助理提供特殊支持。
