Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2021 Jun 23:12:574671.
doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2021.574671. eCollection 2021.

Psychological Distress Among Health Care Workers in Health Facilities of Mettu Town During COVID-19 Outbreak, South West Ethiopia, 2020

Mohammedamin Hajure  1 , Bekem Dibaba  2 , Shuayib Shemsu  3 , Defaru Desalegn  1 , Mohammed Reshad  3 , Mustefa Mohammedhussein  1
Affiliations

Psychological Distress Among Health Care Workers in Health Facilities of Mettu Town During COVID-19 Outbreak, South West Ethiopia, 2020

Mohammedamin Hajure et al. Front Psychiatry. .

Abstract

Background: During any of the infectious disease outbreak, health care workers were at increased risk of being infected, and psychological distress was a common phenomenon. Therefore, the study aimed to assess the psychological distress related to COVID-19 among healthcare workers in Mettu town. Methods: A cross sectional study was conducted from May 1-15, 2020 using convenient sampling techniques among 127 health care providers during COVID-19 pandemic in the Mettu town. Self-administered questionnaire was used to collect information. Depression and anxiety were evaluated as subscales from the Depression Anxiety Stress Scale (DASS-21). Psychological distress related to COVID-19 was measured using the Impact of Event Scale Revised (IES-R). Data analysis were done using SPSS version 24. Chi-square test was used to find the association between the outcome and demographic variables. Multivariable logistic regression analyses were used to evaluate the significance of the association at P-value < 0.05. Result: Using IES-R scale, 40.2% of the participants reported to have the symptoms of psychological distress. The majority of the participants reported mild psychological distress (37%) followed by moderate psychological distress (29%). The multivariate logistic regression analysis revealed that the odds of psychological distress were found to be higher among health care providers who reported to have depressive symptoms, and those who used alcohol, khat and tobacco in the past 3 months shows a significant association with psychological distress. Conclusion: Our findings revealed that the COVID-19 pandemic had exerted major psychological distress on health care providers. So the findings, seek attention for early psychological intervention needed to manage psychological distress in health care providers regarding identified factors.

Keywords: 2020; Ethiopia; Mettu; coronavirus; health care provider.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Level of psychological distress among HCWs in Mettu town, Ethiopia, 2020.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. WHO . Coronavirus Disease (Covid-19) Outbreak: Rights, Roles, and Responsibilities of Health Workers, Including Key Considerations for Occupational Safety. Geneva: World Health Organization. (2020). p. 1–3.
    1. Ismail TI, Shehata SF, Mahrous RSS. Occupational stress and burnout among frontline Egyptian anesthesiologists during COVID-19 outbreak in Egypt. Egypt J Anaesth. (2021) 37:91–9. 10.1080/11101849.2021.1891704 - DOI
    1. BC Ministry of Health . Supporting the Psychosocial Well-being of Health Care Providers During the Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) Pandemic Introduction. Vancouver, BC: pandemic outbreak, still BC Centre for Disease Control; (2020).
    1. Wu KK, Chan SK, Ma TM. Posttraumatic stress after SARS. Emerg Infect Dis. (2005) 11:1297–300. 10.3201/eid1108.041083 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Hatton C, Rivers M, Mason H, Mason L, Kiernan C, Emerson E, et al. . Staff stressors and staff outcomes in services for adults with intellectual disabilities: The staff stressor questionnaire. Res Dev Disabil. (1999) 20:269–85. 10.1016/S0891-4222(99)00009-8 - DOI - PubMed