COVID-19 anxiety, depression and stress in Latin American health professionals: Characteristics and associated factors

Abstract

Due to the pandemic, an increase in mental health problems has been reported in members of the health personnel, with the self-report being an initial way of evaluating it. The objective was to determine the factors associated with the perception of repercussions in the mental sphere in health professionals in Latin America before COVID-19. An analytical cross-sectional study was carried out between June and August 2020 in Latin America. The perception of repercussions was measured through an instrument previously validated in Peru, which was taken virtually from 406 doctors, nurses and others; this was crossed versus other variables. The main concern was returning home and infecting their family (22% strongly agree), followed by feeling the abuse because they do not give them the necessary amount of personal protective equipment (13% strongly agree) and perceiving mental exhaustion for all the activities they did (12% strongly agree). In the multivariate analysis, the older there was a lower perception of mental repercussion (aPR: 0.98; 95% CI: 0.97-0.99; p value = 0.012); In addition, those who had a greater perception of repercussions in the mental sphere also had more anxiety at a low level (aPR: 1.84; 95% CI: 1.14-2.98; p value = 0.013) and post-traumatic stress (aPR: 2.28; 95% CI: 1.61-3.22; p value <0.001), adjusted for depression and stress. Despite being an exploratory analysis, important associations were found in the mental sphere; which should continue to be investigated in larger studies.