Comparative study of the mental health impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on health care professionals in India.

This study aimed to investigate how the psychological health of health care professionals (HCP) on COVID duty was different from those who were not directly in contact. Of 473 (76%) randomly selected respondents (doctors and nurses) to a WhatsApp request message, 450 subjects' data were finally analyzed. The prevalence of stress, anxiety and depression among HCP was 33.8, 38.9 and 43.6%, respectively. Compared with nonexposed professionals, COVID-19-exposed professionals had roughly double the score of these morbidities (t = 6.3, p < 0.001; t = 6.9, p < 0.001; t = 6.0, p < 0.001). Most worry (71.11%) was about the health of their family, followed by themselves (35.55%). The level of exposure, feelings of uncertainty and fear of infection emerged in our study as possible risk factors for psychological morbidities among HCP.