Anxiety and depression among medical doctors in Catalonia, Italy, and the UK during the COVID-19 pandemic

Quintana-Domeque, C., Lee, I., Zhang, A. , Proto, E. , Battisti, M. and Ho, A. (2021) Anxiety and depression among medical doctors in Catalonia, Italy, and the UK during the COVID-19 pandemic. PLoS ONE, 16(11), e0259213. (doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0259213) (PMID:34727110) (PMCID:PMC8562811)

Abstract

Healthcare workers have had the longest and most direct exposure to COVID-19 and consequently may suffer from poor mental health. We conducted one of the first repeated multi-country analysis of the mental wellbeing of medical doctors (n = 5,275) at two timepoints during the COVID-19 pandemic (June 2020 and November/December 2020) to understand the prevalence of anxiety and depression, as well as associated risk factors. Rates of anxiety and depression were highest in Italy (24.6% and 20.1%, June 2020), second highest in Catalonia (15.9% and 17.4%, June 2020), and lowest in the UK (11.7% and 13.7%, June 2020). Across all countries, higher risk of anxiety and depression symptoms were found among women, individuals below 60 years old, those feeling vulnerable/exposed at work, and those reporting normal/below-normal health. We did not find systematic differences in mental health measures between the two rounds of data collection, hence we cannot discard that the mental health repercussions of the pandemic are persistent.

• Item Type: Articles
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Zhang, Dr Anwen and Battisti, Professor Michele and Proto, Professor Eugenio and Ho, Dr Antonia

Creator Roles

Zhang, A.: Conceptualization, Data curation, Formal analysis, Investigation, Methodology, Writing – original draft, Writing – review and editing
Proto, E.: Conceptualization, Conceptualization, Formal analysis, Investigation, Methodology, Writing – original draft, Writing – review and editing
Battisti, M.: Conceptualization, Formal analysis, Investigation, Methodology, Writing – review and editing
Ho, A.: Conceptualization, Investigation, Resources, Writing – review and editing

• Authors: Quintana-Domeque, C., Lee, I., Zhang, A., Proto, E., Battisti, M., and Ho, A.
• College/School: College of Medical Veterinary and Life Sciences > School of Infection & Immunity; College of Social Sciences > Adam Smith Business School > Economics; College of Medical Veterinary and Life Sciences > School of Infection & Immunity > Centre for Virus Research
• Journal Name: PLoS ONE
• Publisher: Public Library of Science
• ISSN: 1932-6203
• ISSN (Online): 1932-6203
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2021 Quintana-Domeque et al.
• First Published: First published in PLoS ONE 16(11): e0259213
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced under a Creative Commons License
• Data DOI: 10.7910/DVN/DRSMYH