COVID-19-Related Trajectories of Psychological Health of Acute Care Healthcare Professionals: A 12-Month Longitudinal Observational Study

Sandra Abegglen; Robert Greif; Alexander Fuchs; Joana Berger-Estilita

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2022.900303

COVID-19-Related Trajectories of Psychological Health of Acute Care Healthcare Professionals: A 12-Month Longitudinal Observational Study

Front Psychol. 2022 Jun 30:13:900303. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.900303. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Sandra Abegglen¹, Robert Greif^{2

3}, Alexander Fuchs², Joana Berger-Estilita^{4

5}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Health Psychology and Behavioural Medicine, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland.
² Department of Anaesthesiology and Pain Medicine, Bern University Hospital (Inselspital), University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland.
³ School of Medicine, Sigmund Freud University Vienna, Vienna, Austria.
⁴ Institute for Medical Education, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland.
⁵ CINTESIS - Center for Health Technology and Services Research, Faculty of Medicine, Porto, Portugal.

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic hit healthcare professionals (HCPs) hard, potentially leading to mental health deterioration. This longitudinal study investigated the 1-year evolution of psychological health of acute care HCPs during the COVID-19 pandemic and explored possible differences between high and low resilient HCPs. From April 2020 to April 2021, a convenience sample of 520 multinational HCPs completed an online survey every 3 months, up to five times. We used mixed linear models to examine the association between resilience and the variation of COVID-19-related anxiety, depressiveness, perceived vulnerability, and psychological trauma symptomatology. We demonstrated "u-shaped" trajectories for all mental health symptoms. We also explored differences in the abovementioned variables between front-line and second-line acute care HCPs. In contrast to HCP.s with lower levels of resilience (-1SD), those with higher levels of resilience (+1SD) showed increased COVID-19 anxiety and perceived vulnerability over time. Front-line and second-line HCPs differed in their depressiveness and psychological trauma variation during the 1-year analysis. High and average resilient second-line HCPs showed steeper depressiveness increases with time than high and average resilient front-line HCPs. Acute care HCPs reported their most elevated clinical symptoms of depressiveness (5-7%) and psychological trauma symptomatology (26-46%) in April 2020. During the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, second-line HCPs with more resilience showed a steeper worsening of their depressiveness than more resilient front-line HCPs. HCPs with low resilience may benefit from interventions at the beginning of a pandemic, whereas HCPs with high resilience might benefit from resilience-enhancing interventions at later phases.

Trial registration: The study protocol was pre-registered with the International Standard Randomised Controlled Trial Number (ISRCTN13694948) published (Fuchs et al., 2020).

Keywords: COVID-19; acute care; healthcare workers; mental health; psychological resilience.

Grants and funding

This study was supported by the Bangerter-Rhyner Foundation (Grant no. 8472/HEG-DSV, 28.09.2020), the Johanna Dürmüller-Bol Foundation (Grant no. 481, 7.8.2020), and the Department of Anaesthesiology and Pain Medicine, Bern University Hospital, Bern, Switzerland (Grant no. 140-BEJD-1-21). Open access funding was provided by the University of Bern.