Anxiety, Depression and Burnout Levels of Turkish Healthcare Workers at the End of the First Period of COVID-19 Pandemic in Turkey

Burak Uz ^{1, 2*}, Esra Savaşan ¹, Dila Soğancı ¹

¹Medicana International Samsun Hospital, ²Medicana International Istanbul Hospital

Received: November 6, 2020; Revised: February 16, 2021; Accepted: February 16, 2021; Published online: February 16, 2021.

Abstract: Objective
COVID-19 pandemic affected mental health of healthcare workers (HCWs) as well as their physical health.
Methods
We aimed to evaluate anxiety, depression and burnout levels of Turkish HCWs after the first period of pandemic. The participants filled sociodemographic data form, Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS), and Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI).
Results
A total of 221 HCWs (68.8% female) with a median age of 28 (20-66) years were included. In terms of HADS cut-off points, 39.8% of the participants scored above the depression cut-off point, while 26.2% scored above the cut-off point for anxiety. The anxiety (HADS-A) and depression (HADS-D) scores of nurses and medical secretaries were significantly high compared to the physicians. Also, the anxiety and depression rates of nurses were higher than both physicians and medical secretaries. Emotional exhaustion (MBI-EE) and depersonalization (MBI-D) scores are highest in nurses, followed by medical secretaries and physicians, respectively. In multivariate analysis, being a nurse (OR: 4.671, p = 0.044) or medical secretary (OR: 4.013, p = 0.048), requirement of using a mental health support line (OR: 4.641, p = 0.005), having any kind of addiction (OR: 2.562, p = 0.019) and being under antidepressant therapy (OR: 3.096, p = 0.036) significantly increased the risk of anxiety. However, in multivariate analyses, only requirement of using a mental health support line significantly increased the risk of depression (OR: 8.542, p = 0.001).
Conclusion
Female HCWs, nurses and medical secretaries experienced higher levels of mental health symptoms compared to male HCWs and physicians.; Keywords: COVID-19, healthcare workers, anxiety, depression, burnout, mental health support line

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