The role of social support and resilience in the mental health impact of the COVID-19 pandemic among healthcare workers in Spain

Background: Healthcare workers (HCWs) from COVID-19 pandemic hotspots across the globe have reported mental health problems, including anxiety, depression, or sleep problems. Many studies have focused on identifying modifiable risk factors, such as being afraid of getting infected or reporting short...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Ortiz-Calvo, Esther, Martínez-Alés, Gonzalo, Mediavilla Torres, Roberto, González-Gómez, Elisabeth, Fernández-Jiménez, Eduardo, Bravo Ortiz, María Fe, Moreno-Küstner, Berta, COVID-19 HEalth caRe wOrkErS – Spain (HEROES-SPA) Group 2
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Fecha de publicación:2022
País:España
Institución:Universidad Autónoma de Madrid
Repositorio:Biblos-e Archivo. Repositorio Institucional de la UAM
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:repositorio.uam.es:10486/726620
Acceso en línea:https://hdl.handle.net/10486/726620
https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jpsychires.2021.12.030
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:resilience
social support
mental health
suicide
COVID-19
healthcare workers
Medicina
Descripción
Sumario:Background: Healthcare workers (HCWs) from COVID-19 pandemic hotspots across the globe have reported mental health problems, including anxiety, depression, or sleep problems. Many studies have focused on identifying modifiable risk factors, such as being afraid of getting infected or reporting shortage of personal protective equipment, but none have explored the role of protective factors. Method: This cross-sectional study used an online survey to describe the association between three potentially protective factors (self-reported resilience, self-perceived social support from colleagues at work, and self-perceived social support from relatives and friends) and three mental health outcomes, namely psychological distress, depression symptoms, and death thoughts in a large sample of Spanish HCWs during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. Results: We recruited 2,372 respondents between April 26th and June 22nd, 2020. Resilience and self-perceived social support were inversely associated with mental health problems (psychological distress, depression symptoms, and death thoughts), after adjusting for potential sources of confounding. Conclusions: Resilience and self-perceived social support might protect HCWs against negative mental health outcomes. Public health strategies targeting these modifiable determinants might help to reduce the impact of the pandemic on HCWs’ mental health