PRESENT NEW CORONAVIRUS INFECTION AND ITS IMPACT ON PSYCHOLOGICAL WELL-BEING STAFF OF MEDICAL INSTITUTIONS AND UNIVERSITIES

Objective was to analyze the psychological well-being of employees of medical scientific and educational institutions of higher education and to identify the impact of earlier COVID-19.

Material and methods. A one-time online study was conducted (the online questionnaire was posted on the ancetolog.ru platform) during the COVID-19 pandemic (the period of circulation of the delta variant of the virus) from January to March 2022. To assess psychological well-being, the following were used: an online questionnaire; Perceived Stress Scale-10 (PSS); Generalized Anxiety Disorder scale (GAD-2); Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-4). The analysis was carried out on 3918 respondents: 1708 (13.6%) of which indicated that they had suffered from COVID-19 and 2210 (56.4%) noted they hadn’t.

Results. Medical providers who had recovered from COVID-19 were statistically significantly more likely to have high PHQ-2 scores, indicating probable depression (17.2% versus 10.2% for those who were not ill, p < 0.001) and high GAD-2 scores, indicating probable presence of anxiety (11% vs. 6.7%, p < 0.001). Earlier COVID-19 increased the chance of depression OR 1.828 (95% CI 1.500-2.227 χ2=36.554; p < 0.001) and anxiety OR 1.721 (95% CI 1.349-2.172 χ2=19.951; p < 0.001).

Conclusion. The study showed a high level of emotional and psychological stress (the presence of anxiety and depression) among medical staff, which was significantly more pronounced in COVID-19 survivors. In this regard, an important task for the administration of medical scientific organizations and educational institutions of higher education should be the development of measures aimed at correcting identified disorders and searching for indicators, influencing which will ensure the most effective positive changes.

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