Impacts of COVID-19 pandemic period on depression, anxiety and stress levels of the healthcare employees in Turkey

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has turned into a public health issue since December 2019 and has risen in all countries in the world. The healthcare employees taking part in the pandemic will eventually be affected by the process. The aim of the study is to determine the levels of the anxiety, depression, and stress of the healthcare employees during the COVID-19 pandemic in Turkey. As the data collection tool, an e-survey was used. In the first section, Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale (DASS-21) was used. In the second section of the survey, the problems experienced by the healthcare employees during the pandemic and their working media were aimed to be defined. In the last section, the socio-demographic features of the employees were investigated. 2076 healthcare employees participated in the study. The results showed that the major cause of the anxiety or stress among healthcare employees comes from the fear to contaminate the COVID-19 virus to their families (86.9%). It was observed that the levels of depression, anxiety and stress of female employees are higher than that of male employees (p < 0.003). The highest depression, anxiety and stress levels of healthcare employees come from the pandemic, emergency, and internal services (p < 0.001). Health managers and policymakers need to make a move immediately to find solutions for the physical and psychological needs of the health employees. On the other hand, in order to minimize the risk, preparation of the work power plans beforehand and inclusion of obligatory referral chain into health services can be suggested.