Psychological Distress in South African Healthcare Workers Early in the COVID-19 Pandemic: An Analysis of Associations and Mitigating Factors

Hsin-Ling Lee, Kerry S. Wilson, Colleen Bernstein, Nisha Naicker, Annalee Yassi () and Jerry M. Spiegel
Additional contact information
Hsin-Ling Lee: Global Health Research Program, School of Population and Public Health, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z3, Canada
Kerry S. Wilson: National Institute for Occupational Health, Division of the National Health Laboratory Service, Johannesburg 2000, South Africa
Colleen Bernstein: Department of Psychology, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg 2050, South Africa
Nisha Naicker: National Institute for Occupational Health, Division of the National Health Laboratory Service, Johannesburg 2000, South Africa
Annalee Yassi: Global Health Research Program, School of Population and Public Health, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z3, Canada
Jerry M. Spiegel: Global Health Research Program, School of Population and Public Health, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z3, Canada

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 15, 1-20

Abstract: While the global COVID-19 pandemic has been widely acknowledged to affect the mental health of health care workers (HCWs), attention to measures that protect those on the front lines of health outbreak response has been limited. In this cross-sectional study, we examine workplace contextual factors associated with how psychological distress was experienced in a South African setting where a severe first wave was being experienced with the objective of identifying factors that can protect against HCWs experiencing negative impacts. Consistent with mounting literature on mental health effects, we found a high degree of psychological distress (57.4% above the General Health Questionnaire cut-off value) and a strong association between perceived risks associated with the presence of COVID-19 in the healthcare workplace and psychological distress (adjusted OR = 2.35, p < 0.01). Our research indicates that both training (adjusted OR 0.41, 95% CI 0.21–0.81) and the reported presence of supportive workplace relationships (adjusted OR 0.52, 95% CI 0.27–0.97) were associated with positive outcomes. This evidence that workplace resilience can be reinforced to better prepare for the onset of similar outbreaks in the future suggests that pursuit of further research into specific interventions to improve resilience is well merited.

Keywords: psychological distress; COVID-19; health care workers; risk perception; workplace management; training; practice; job stress (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/15/9722/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/15/9722/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:15:p:9722-:d:882360

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().