Publication:

Fear and depression among health care professionals: a cross-sectional study during COVID-19 pandemic in Bangladesh

Background COVID-19 pandemic is a public health emergency of international concern that can result in severe mental health conditions like depression and fear in health-care professionals (HCPs).

Methods A cross-sectional study was conducted, where 834 HCPs were self-recruited via social media. Multiple linear regression analyses were performed to identify predicting factors.

Results Approximately one-third of the total participants were depressed (27.3%) and those with depressive symptoms had significant fear of COVID-19. Significant risk factors for depressive symptoms were being female, being married, having no children, having high risk elderly persons at home, being afraid of death due to COVID-19 and having comorbid diseases. Fear of death due to COVID-19 was the most common significant contributing factor the scales for depression model, β=0.397, for fear of COVID-19 model and β=0.478 respectively. Quality of PPE played a vital role for depression as majority of HCPs. About 65.3% of HCPs who were restless while examining a patient with flu symptoms and majority of HCPs who felt insecure about their family members.

Conclusions Most of the HCPs faced several challenges during COVID-19 and psychological impacts of frontline HCPs were associated with interventions and rehabilitations to improve the mental health.