The Effects of COVID-19 pandemic on mental health and work-related quality of life of healthcare professionals & healthy minds, save lives / Arabella Maria F. Acorda, Paolo Miguel J. Adriano, Carl Andrew G. Alvero, Archie J. Animas, Areej G. Aslam, Laraine Ann M. Bagsit, Chriselle Ane C. Ballesfin, Nicole T. Basanta, Gedric Lenar Y. Borlongan, Janine Kate B. Caoili, Eunice A. Carpio, Barty Castro IV, Nicole Vienne Q. Culaba, Mary Joyce Frances A. De Guzman, Ma. Theresa Y. de Rama, Richele Veronica L. Decena and Julienne F. Delfin.

Includes appendices and bibliographical references.

Abstract: Since the beginning of the Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak in the Philippines in February 2020, the healthcare system has faced immense pressure and stretched the healthcare workers (HCW) beyond their capacity. This caused an unprecedented public medical catastrophe, general fear, health hazards, more restless workloads, and uncertainty. The aim was to provide evidence on the potential effects of COVID-19 pandemic to the mental health and work-related quality of life of the HCW who directly face the pandemic. A systematic review was conducted using two databases, PubMed (n=12) and Google Scholar (n=4). The search strategy included reference keywords including COVID-19, healthcare workers, mental health and quality of life. Forty six relevant articles were identified through systematic search of the two databases, PubMed (n=21) and Google Scholar (n=25) (fig.1) After excluding 11 duplicates, the remaining articles were assessed according to the following criteria: (1) dated 2019-20211 (2) can be downloaded as full-text, (3) conduct of study includes third world countries, (4) included healthcare workers who deal with COVID-19 patients and (5) do not contain personal biases and opinions of researches. After the assessment, a total of 16 articles were found eligible for the systematic review after satisfying the mentioned criteria. We identified 16 articles with 7,594 HCW as participants which were included in this systematic review. It showed that most of the studies particularly evaluated the healthcare worker's mental health status during COVID-19 pandemic. Among the respondents, females are mostly affected by the outcomes in the studies. The majority of the studies were conducted in developing countries in Asia struggling with COVID-19 pandemic. The most studied outcomes were anxiety (13/16) followed by depression (12/16), insomnia (6/16), and post traumatic stress disorder (4/16). Furthermore, psychological distress, loneliness, well-being, quality of life, burnout, perceived health and social support were the main results in other studies. These studies demonstrated that HCW who experienced these mental pressures are caused by numerous factors. Healthcare workers who are working in areas with a high incidence of COVID-19 were associated with higher stress and psychological distress. Moreover, women, frontline health care workers such as nurses and physicians, and younger medical staff reported more severe degrees of all psychological symptoms. The present study found that psychological distress, which can take various forms such as anxiety, depressive symptoms, post traumatic stress disorder, insomnia, stress, loneliness, and burnout, have been revealed among HCW during the COVID-19 pandemic. Moreover, improved clinical and policy strategies, a flexible system and psychological support were found to be helpful to mitigate deteriorations in psychological well being and support mental health. Hence, there is a need to increase the mental health awareness for staff in the medical setting. The findings of this study highlighted the need for the appropriate creation and implementation of policies and early interventions that may help prevent and manage the adverse outcomes of poor mental health in our HCW and help foster a better supportive working environment that will protect their psychological well-being.

Thesis - Department of Community & Family Medicine