AUTHOR=Xie Jun , Liu Qi , Jiang Xiaobing , Manandhar Upasana , Zhu Zhen , Li Yuanyuan , Zhang Bo 

TITLE=Psychological Health Issues of Medical Staff During the COVID-19 Outbreak

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Psychiatry

VOLUME=12

YEAR=2021

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychiatry/articles/10.3389/fpsyt.2021.611223

DOI=10.3389/fpsyt.2021.611223

ISSN=1664-0640

ABSTRACT=<p><bold>Background:</bold> The outbreak of novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has caused public panic and psychological health problems, especially in medical staff. We aimed to investigate the psychological effect of the COVID-19 outbreak on medical staff.</p><p><bold>Methods:</bold> A cross-sectional study was conducted to examine the psychological impact of medical staff working in COVID-19 designated hospitals from February to March 2020 in China. We assessed psychological health problems using the Symptom Check List 90 (SCL-90).</p><p><bold>Results:</bold> Among 656 medical staff, 244 were frontline medical staff and 412 general medical staff. The prevalence of psychological health problems was 19.7%. The SCL-90 scores in frontline medical staff were significantly higher than that in general medical staff (mean: 141.22 vs. 129.54, <italic>P</italic> &lt; 0.05). Furthermore, gender [odds ratio (OR) = 1.53, 95% CI = (1.02, 2.30), <italic>P</italic> = 0.042 for female vs. male] and the burden of current work [OR = 7.55, 95% CI = (3.75, 15.21), <italic>P</italic> &lt; 0.001 for high burden; OR = 2.76, 95% CI = (1.80, 4.24), <italic>P</italic> &lt; 0.001 for moderate burden vs. low burden] were associated with increased risk of poor psychological status.</p><p><bold>Conclusions:</bold> Medical staff experienced a high risk of psychological health problems during the outbreak of COVID-19, especially for frontline medical staff. Psychological health services are expected to arrange for medical staff in future unexpected infectious disease outbreaks.</p>