Journal of Psychiatry

The Prevalence of Depressive and Anxiety Symptoms Among East Avenue Medical Center (EAMC) Health Care Workers During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Single Center Study

International Summit on Psychiatry and Psychology - February 24, 2022 | Webinar

February 24, 2022 | Webinar

Maria Yna Eluisia T. Pereyra-Borlongan, Brian Jann R. Balanquit, Andre Angelo G. Tanque

East Avenue Medical Center, Quezon city, Philippines

Scientific Tracks Abstracts: J Psychiatry

Abstract:

COVID-19, caused by the most recently discovered corona virus SARS-CoV-2 (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Corona Virus 2), has already reached pandemic scale worldwide. And it is expected for health care workers to feel stressed and worried during these times due to their exposure to infected individuals. In cross-sectional studies performed in China and Italy in 2020, several psychologic symptoms have been observed to be prevalent, such as anxiety, depression, and traumatic distress. In this cross-sectional study of 390 health care workers, we use two brief mental health screening tools, namely Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9), a validated tool for depression, and Generalized Anxiety Disorder Scale-7 (GAD-7) a validated tool for anxiety. Factors such as marital status, occupation and employment status appear to have association with the development of depressive and anxiety symptoms. Perceived stressors during the COVID-19 pandemic include long working hours, inconsistent administrative policies, exposure to Covid-19 positive individuals, inadequate time off from work and increasing number of patients but without commensurate additional work force. For our sample population, 31.8% did not have depressive symptoms, 35.6% had mild, 21% moderate, 9.7% moderately severe and 1.8% had severe depressive symptoms. While for anxiety, 57.7% had no to minimal symptoms, 26.9% mild, 9.7% moderate and 5.6% had severe anxiety symptoms. It is therefore concluded that the Covid-19 pandemic indeed caused significant anxiety and depressive symptoms among health care workers. Measures to increase the work force should be put in place to decrease work burden and employee fatigue.

Biography :

Maria Yña Eluisia T. Pereyra-Borlongan completed her medical degree with masteral in Business Administration at the Ateneo School of Medicine and Public Health. She is currently specializing in Internal Medicine. She is also a certified consultant in Occupational Medicine, practicing as an occupational health physician for some construction and chemical companies. She has interest in the behavioral sciences since she has observed increasing mental health issues in their institution since the Covid-19 pandemic started. She hopes to develop policies which can improve workplace environment and further decrease employee fatigue and psychologic symptoms in her institutions.