Prevalence and factors associated with depression, anxiety, and stress symptoms among professors during COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

Objective: To estimate the prevalence and factors associated with symptoms of depression, anxiety and stress in university professors in the health field during the pandemic period of COVID-19. Methods: This is an analytical, cross-sectional study with a quantitative approach with 150 university professors in the health field. The instruments used were: a form for collecting socio-demographic, economic and labor data. Mental health was assessed using the Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale-21 (DASS-21). The association between the variables studied and the prevalence of symptoms of depression, anxiety and stress was verified by bivariate analysis followed by Poisson regression, with robust variance. Results: The final sample consisted of 150 individuals with a mean age of 41.4 ± 7.9 years with the majority being female (74%). 50% of the teachers had symptoms of depression, 37.4% reported symptoms of anxiety and 47.2% had symptoms of stress. After multiple analysis, it was observed that the symptoms of depression were associated with the variable working in more than one institution of higher education. The variables that were shown to be associated with anxiety were: age group ≥ 40 years and people without a steady partner. Stress was associated with the variable marital status without a steady partner. Conclusion: The prevalence of symptoms of depression, anxiety and stress in university professors in the health area was high, and sociodemographic and labor factors remained associated with the investigated outcomes.