Objective: Little is known about the impact of Coronavirus (COVID-19) among the health care workers in Saudi Arabia. Therefore, the present study aimed to assess the psychological impact of COVID-19 among the health care workers. Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted from May till mid-July among 389 health care workers from government and private hospitals in Saudi Arabia. Data was collected using a pre-structured online questionnaire that measured adverse psychological outcomes, including the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) scale and the Generalized Anxiety Disorder 7-item (GAD-7) scale. The Pearson chi-square test was used to assess the distribution of depression and anxiety among health care workers. Results: A high level of anxiety was recorded among the health care workers, and 69.3% of health care workers below the age of 40 were found to have depression. There was a significant increase in depression among staff with chronic health problems (72.1% vs. 61.9%; p = 0.048). High anxiety levels were detected among young staff compared to others (68.7% vs. 43.8%; p = 0.001). Moreover, 82.1% of the female staff were anxious, as compared to 55.6% of the males ( p = 0.001). Conclusions: We found increased prevalence of adverse psychological outcomes among the health care workers in Saudi Arabia during the outbreak of COVID-19. Therefore, there is a need for proper screening and development of corresponding preventive measures to decrease the adverse psychological outcomes.
【저자키워드】 coronavirus, Anxiety, Depression, observational descriptive study, 【초록키워드】 COVID-19, coronavirus, Health care, hospital, health care workers, Saudi Arabia, Prevalence, Health, outbreak, psychological Impact, male, female, Health care worker, age, preventive measures, distribution, questionnaire, cross-sectional survey, anxiety levels, health problems, preventive measure, Generalized Anxiety Disorder, Anxiety Disorder, chi-square test, PHQ-9, Government, Psychological outcome, significant increase, GAD-7, problem, Pearson, Pearson chi-square test, Psychological outcomes, decrease, was used, conducted, was collected, Generalized, was recorded, 【제목키워드】 COVID-19, Health care, Impact, worker,