Accepted for/Published in: JMIR Public Health and Surveillance
Date Submitted: Sep 14, 2020
Date Accepted: Jan 14, 2021
Date Submitted to PubMed: Feb 25, 2021
A wakeup call for burnout? A national survey of Portuguese physicians during the COVID-19 outbreak
ABSTRACT
Background:
The novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak has put a lot of physical and psychological pressure on healthcare professionals, including physicians at the frontline. Thus, evaluating the mental health status of physicians during the current pandemic is important to define future preventive guidelines from healthcare stakeholders.
Objective:
In this study, we intended to study alterations in the mental health status of Portuguese physicians working at the COVID-19 frontline and potential sociodemographic factors influencing this status.
Methods:
A national survey was applied to infer differences in the mental health status (depression, anxiety, stress, and obsessive-compulsive symptoms) between Portuguese physicians working at the frontline of COVID-19 and other physicians that were not working at the frontline. Moreover, we explored the influence of several sociodemographic factors on mental health variables (age, sex, living conditions, and household composition).
Results:
A representative sample of 420 participants based on age, sex, and geographic region was analyzed (200 participants in the frontline group and 220 in the control group). Our results showed that being female and working at the frontline were found as potential risk factors for stress. Additionally, younger physicians have higher levels of stress. In contrast, having a house with green space was a potentially beneficial factor for stress and anxiety.
Conclusions:
Our findings point to the necessity of applying protective mental health measures for physicians to avoid long-term effects of stress such as burnout.
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Copyright
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