Prevalence of stress and associated changes in the personal habits of frontline healthcare workers during COVID-19 pandemic: A questionnaire based study

Abstract

Background: Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has spread to 198 countries, with approximately 104 million confirmed cases and 2.21 million deaths globally as of January 28. Frontline healthcare workers face a substantially higher risk of infection and death due to excessive COVID-19 exposure. The aimed of the study to assess the prevalence of stress and associated changes in the personal habits of frontline healthcare workers during COVID-19 pandemic - A questionnaire based study.Material and Methods: It was a cross-sectional, online survey conducted in December 2020 among FHWs who are directly involved in the triage, screening, diagnosing, and treatment of COVID-19 patients and suspects. Demographic characteristics were summarized using descriptive statistics such as frequency and percentages in case of discrete data. Data were exported from the Google Forms to Microsoft Excel spreadsheet and coded.Result: A total of 332 responses were received and involved in any of the COVID-19 related activities. The 332 participants from across 36 states and including union territory were included in the analysis. The majority of the participants age 25-40 years (86.45%). Male are predominance in our study (53.92%). Of the 332 participants, 81.0% (n = 269/332) were doctors and the remaining 18.9% (n = 63/332) were nurses and OT technician. Anaesthesiologist formed the major proportion (n = 145/332; 43.67%). The maximum percentage of experience were 47.59% between 1-5 years. The prevalence of FHWs with sometimes felt nervous and stress was 40.0% (118). The prevalence rates FHWs with fairly often stress was 28.14%. Conclusion: The frontline healthcare workers are at risk of physical and mental consequences directly as the result of providing care to patients with COVID-19. Even though there are few intervention studies, early data suggest implementation strategies to reduce the chances of infections, shorter shift lengths, and mechanisms for mental health support could reduce the morbidity and mortality amongst Frontline healthcare workers.