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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Public Health
Sec. Public Mental Health
Volume 12 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2024.1458167
This article is part of the Research Topic Burnout, Wellbeing and Resilience of Healthcare Workers in the Post-COVID World View all 10 articles

Latent profile analysis of burnout, depression, and anxiety symptoms among Chinese medical staff with frontline anti-epidemic experience in the post-COVID-19 pandemic era

Provisionally accepted
Huachun Xu Huachun Xu 1Lanjun Qiu Lanjun Qiu 1Yu Chen Yu Chen 1Mengjun Zhang Mengjun Zhang 2Junyi Li Junyi Li 1Guochun Xiang Guochun Xiang 2*
  • 1 Sichuan Normal University, Chengdu, China
  • 2 Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Background: Frontline medical staff's psychological symptoms deserve persistent attention after three years of high-pressure and high-intensity work during the pandemic. In addition, the meaning of burnout and its relationship with depression and anxiety have long been debated. This study aimed to identify profiles of these symptoms among Chinese medical staff with frontline anti-epidemic experience, along with their distinguishing characteristics.Methods: Psychological symptoms of burnout (exhaustion, cynicism, and inefficacy), depression, and anxiety from 989 doctors and 1105 nurses were explored with latent profile analysis. The R3step method was conducted to analyze the predictive factors of those medical staff's symptoms.Results: Three symptom profiles were identified for medical staff, with high-level (62.1%), moderate-level (28.9%), and low-level symptoms (9.0%). In the low-level and moderate-level profiles, symptom variables considered had a consistent trend.However, within the high-level profile, the inefficacy of burnout remained at a lower level, and anxiety performed as the most prominent symptom. Variables of gender, age, salary satisfaction, work hours, and work intensity predicted medical staff profiles (p<0.05).In the post-COVID-19 era, former frontline Chinese medical staff's psychological symptoms were divided into three latent profiles. Symptoms of burnout, depression, and anxiety did not move in lock-step, indicating that they are different and robust constructs. Targeted intervention strategies should be developed for different subgroups.

    Keywords: latent profile analysis, burnout, Depression, Anxiety, Medical Staff

    Received: 02 Jul 2024; Accepted: 16 Dec 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Xu, Qiu, Chen, Zhang, Li and Xiang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Guochun Xiang, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, 510515, Guangdong, China

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.