Evaluation of the mental health status of community healthcare workers during the COVID-19 outbreak

Abstract

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has rapidly spread across China and many countries worldwide, and community healthcare workers at the front lines of disease control are under high physical and mental pressure. This study investigated the mental health status of community healthcare workers during the COVID-19 outbreak in Sichuan Province, China. This cross-sectional study, which was conducted from February 8 to 18, 2020, involved 450 healthcare workers in 18 community hospitals who had worked for more than 1 year. A self-designed demographic data questionnaire and Symptom Checklist 90 (SCL-90) were provided to the participants through links and quick response codes. The respondents completed and submitted the questionnaires online. Binary logistic regression was used to analyze multiple factors related to the SCL-90 scores of these community healthcare workers in China. For the 450 community healthcare workers who completed the study, the median scores in each SCL-90 factor were lower than the Chinese norms, and 119 (26.4%) participants were SCL-90 positive. Among them, 178 participants were doctors and had the highest scores on most SCL-90 factors except for obsessive compulsiveness, hostility, phobic anxiety, and psychoticism (P < 0.05). The top 3 positive items for doctors working in the community were obsessive compulsiveness, others, and somatization, and those among nurses were obsessive compulsiveness, others, and hostility. Sex, type of workers, and occupational exposure risk to COVID-19 were independent risk factors for the mental health status of the community healthcare workers. Overall, the community healthcare workers experienced psychological problems during the COVID-19 outbreak in Sichuan Province, China. More attention should be paid to the mental health of these workers, and their mental status should be regularly assessed. Psychological interventions should be provided to those with serious mental problems through networks or telephone visits.