The present study sought to examine mental health problems among nursing home workers in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, to investigate COVID-19–related fears, and to identify prepandemic factors associated with current mental health issues.
Design
A cross-sectional, online survey was used.
Setting and Participants
All employees among 6 nursing homes in southwestern France (N = 455) were solicited between November, 2020 and June, 2021.
Methods
The survey instrument was developed within the World Mental Health consortium to screen for COVID-related fears, probable generalized anxiety, panic attacks, depression, posttraumatic stress and substance use disorders in the past 30 days.
Results
The survey was completed by 127 workers (89.0% female, mean age = 43.42 years, SD = 11.29), yielding a 28.5% response rate. Overall, 48.03% reported experiencing fear of infecting others at least most of the time. One in 8 (14.96%) indicated that close others feared being infected by them. One-third of the sample (34.65%) met criteria for at least 1 probable current mental disorder. Panic attacks (22.05%) were the most frequently reported mental health problem, followed by depression (16.54%). In multivariate analyses, the only factor associated with having a current probable mental disorder was the presence of any prepandemic mental health problem (adjusted odds ratio 4.76, 95% CI 2.08-10.89). Type of employment contract, full-time status, and medical vs nonmedical staff status were not significantly associated with mental health status.
Conclusions and Implications
The study reveals that one-third of nursing home workers in the sample report current probable mental disorders, and these were largely associated with prepandemic mental health status. Screening for common mental health problems and facilitating access to appropriate care should be prioritized in nursing homes.
Keywords
Nursing homes
COVID-19
SARS-CoV-2
mental health
health care worker
pandemic
Cited by (0)
The study was supported by grant ANR-20-COV1-000/RA-COVID-19 V2 from the National Research Agency/Agence Nationale de la Recherche and the Fondation de France (M.H.). The funder had no role in the collection, analysis, and interpretation of data; writing of the report; or the decision to submit the article for publication.
