Mental Health Adverse Effects of COVID-19 Pandemic on Health Care Workers in North West Ethiopia: A Multicenter Cross-Sectional Study.

BACKGROUND

The coronavirus has affected nearly every aspect of our lives. Most importantly the health-care workers (HCWs) are under insurmountable psychological pressures which lead them to various mental health problems, such as anxiety, stress, and depression.

OBJECTIVE

This study aimed to assess mental health adverse effects of COVID-19 pandemic on health-care workers in North West Ethiopia 2020.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Institutional-based cross-sectional study was conducted. A simple random sampling technique was applied and 419 participants completed the questionnaire. Mental health adverse effects were measured using the depression, anxiety and stress scale (DASS-21). Data were entered into Epi data version 4.4.2 then exported to SPSS version 24 for analysis. Descriptive, bivariate, and multivariate binary logistic regressions with odds ratios and 95% confidence interval were employed. The level of significance of association was determined at a p-value < 0.05.

RESULTS

Prevalence of depression, anxiety, and stress in this study was 58.2%, 64.7%, and 63.7%, respectively Those who had a medical illness, and mental illness, contact with confirmed COVID-19 pts, and poor social support showed a statistically significant association with depression. Female sex, participants who had families with chronic illness, had contact with confirmed COVID-19 case and poor social support had statistically significant association with anxiety, whereas participants who had families with chronic illness had contact with confirmed COVID-19 cases, and those participants who had poor social support were predictors of stress during COVID-19 pandemic.

CONCLUSION

The magnitudes of mental health problems were higher and the concerned body should emphasize the continuous assessment of the mental health of health-care workers during this pandemic.