Sheffield university study finds nurses and female healthcare workers most at risk of distress during Covid-19 pandemic

University researchers conducted the largest global review of the factors linked to psychological distress in healthcare workers throughout the Covid-19 pandemic.

The study found nurses and female healthcare workers are most likely to experience psychological distress during an infectious disease outbreak, including coronavirus, SARS, Bird Flu, Swine Flu and Ebola.

Academics assessed fix factors such as demographic characteristics, age, sex and occupation as well as social pyschological and infection-related factors in more than 143,000 healthcare workers from around the world.

Distress for healthcare workers can last for up to three years after the initial outbreak, the review of 139 studies which included data collected between 2000 and November 2020 revealed.

Healthcare workers that had reported facing stigma during the pandemic were also found to have experienced greater psychological distress according to researchers.

Reader in Social and Health Psychology from the University of Sheffield, and lead author of the study Dr Fuschia Sirois said: “Consistent evidence indicated that being female, a nurse, experiencing stigma and having contact or risk of contact with infected patients were the biggest risk factors for psychological distress among health care workers.

“By analysing data from previous infectious disease outbreaks such as SARS, Bird Flu and Swine Flu it appears that distress for health care workers can persist for up to three years after the initial outbreak.

“As the world continues to tackle the Covid-19 pandemic it is so important that we identify the health care workers who are most at risk for distress and the factors that can be modified to reduce distress and improve resilience.”

The findings which were published in the journal Frontiers in Psychiatry, have informed a new framework which healthcare providers can use to identify those most at risk of increased distress, as well as areas to target to help build resilience.

This framework is aimed to help guide early interventions and ongoing monitoring among health workers as the coronavirus crisis continues.

“Personal and organisational social support, feeling in control, sufficient information about the outbreak and proper protection, training and resources, were associated with less psychological distress,” Dr Sirois added.

“It was interesting to see that factors such as age didn’t appear to have a significant impact - even during Covid-19.

"In some studies older people weren’t distressed - perhaps because they had worked as health care professionals for many years and therefore felt more equipped in dealing with an outbreak, whereas younger people who are physically less likely to be affected by the infectious disease tended to be less experienced in dealing with an outbreak professionally, therefore causing them to be more distressed.”

The review found that social aspects also affected healthcare staff differently - people benefited from having a social support network, however living with a partner or children caused increased stress for many who were scared about passing on the infection.

Dr Sirois and a team from the University of Sheffield and the Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust are now conducting a further study with NHS workers to help identify factors which could help to reduce distress during COVID-19.

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