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Did the COVID-19 pandemic affect depressive symptoms? Longitudinal analysis of health worker data
(2023)
Background
Health workers play a vital role in response to outbreaks under pandemic circumstances, but are also highly vulnerable to stress-related mental health issues (e.g., due to pandemic workload). There are knowledge gaps regarding temporal development of the emergence of depressive symptoms among health workers during the COVID-19 pandemic and their determinants. This study examined the trajectory of depressive symptoms and their association with a) stress perception, b) own COVID-19 infection and c) COVID-19 exposure at work.
Methods
This cohort study with 91 health workers (90% female, x⎯⎯=45
years) from a German general hospital included (1) medical, nursing and therapeutic staff and (2) administrative staff. Data were collected longitudinally every month from July to December 2020. Linear multilevel models were used to evaluate associations between trajectories of depression scores (German ‘General Depression Scale’) with perceived stress (‘Perceived Stress Scale’). Laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 infection was tested as a moderator of depressive symptom development. Trajectoires of depressive symptom modalities (e.g., somatic, emotional) were analysed stratified by COVID-19 exposure at work.
Results
Depression scores increased across the study period (b=.03, .02-.05). Perceived stress was associated with depression scores (b=.12, .10-.14). The presence of health workers’ own COVID-19 infection was associated with a higher increase (b=.06, .01-.10). Somatic symptoms of depression increased over time only among health workers directly exposed to COVID-19 patients at work (b=.25, .13-.38).
Conclusions
The increase in depressive symptomatology among health workers exposed to COVID-19 in the workplace points to the need for further research. Since the infection with COVID-19 is associated with an increase of depressive symptoms across time, awareness should be raised about measures to protect against virus transmission, especially during a pandemic.
Exposure to COVID-19 in the workplace is associated with increased somatic depressive symptoms.
Background:
Healthcare workers (HCW) are at high risk to develop mental health problems during the COVID-19 pandemic because of additional work load, perceived stress, and exposure to patients with COVID-19. Currently, there are few studies on change over time in the prevalence of depressive symptoms during pandemic start among HCW. Thus, the aims of the current study were to examine whether depressive symptoms increased during the pandemic and were associated with perceived stress and own COVID-19 infection and workplace exposure to virus-infected patients.
Methods:
The cohort study used longitudinal data from HCW collected monthly (July 2020 till December 2020) during the first year of the pandemic before vaccination became available. The sample of n = 166 was drawn from a German hospital and included medical (e.g. nurses, therapists, and physicians) and administrative staff. Using multilevel models, we analyzed the change in depressive symptoms [assessed with General Depression Scale (GDS), a validated German version of the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale (CES-D)] and its association with perceived stress across the study period. Laboratory-confirmed own infection was tested as a potential moderator in this context. Subscales of the GDS were used to examine change over time of depressive symptom modalities (e.g. emotional, somatic, and social interactions (β, 95% confidence interval).
Results:
Depression scores increased significantly during the study period (β = .03, 95% CI [0.02, 0.05]). Perceived stress was associated with depressive symptoms (β = .12, 95% CI [0.10, 0.14]) but did not change over time. Exposure to COVID-19 infection was associated with a higher increase of depressive symptoms (β = .12, 95% CI [0.10, .14]). Somatic symptoms of depression increased among medical HCW with workplace exposure to COVID-19 (β = .25, 95% CI [0.13, 0.38]), but not in administrators (β = .03, 95% CI [−0.04, 0.11]).
Conclusion:
Research is needed to identify factors that promote the reduction of depressive symptoms in medical HCW with exposition to COVID-19 patients. Awareness of infection protection measures should be increased.
Introduction: In industrialised countries, one in ten patients suffers harm during hospitalization. Critical Incident Reporting Systems (CIRS) aim to minimize this by learning from errors and identifying potential risks. However, a lack of interoperability among the 16 CIRS in Germany hampers their effectiveness.
Methods: This study investigates reports' syntactic and semantic interoperability across seven different reporting systems. Syntactic interoperability was examined using WHO's Minimal Information Models (MIM), while semantic interoperability was evaluated with SNOMED concepts.
Results: The findings reveal a low structural overlap, with only two terms correctly represented in the SNOMED CT terminology. In addition, most systems showed no syntactic interoperability.
Conclusion: Improving interoperability is essential for increasing the effectiveness and usability of CIRS. The study suggests a unified data model such as MIM or using Health Level 7 Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (HL7 FHIR) resources and expanding SNOMED CT with patient safety-relevant terms for semantic interoperability. Given the current lack of both syntactic and semantic interoperability in CIRS, developing a patient safety ontology is recommended for efficient critical incident analysis too.