Individual Differences in the Affective Response to Pandemic-Related Stressors in COVID-19 Health Care Workers

We investigated the evolving prevalence of mood and anxiety symptoms among health care workers from May 2020 to January 2021, risk factors for adverse outcomes, and characteristic modes of affective responses to pandemic-related stressors.

A total of 2307 health care workers (78.9% female, modal age 25-34 years) participated in an online survey assessing depression (Patient Health Questionnaire-9) and anxiety (Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 scale) symptoms, demographic variables, and self-reported impact of pandemic-related stressors. A total of 334 subjects were reassessed ∼6 months later.

The prevalence of clinically significant depression and anxiety was 45.3% and 43.3%, respectively, and a majority (59.9%-62.9%) of those individuals had persistent significant symptoms at 6-month follow-up. Younger age, female gender, and specific occupations (support staff > nurses > physicians) were associated with increased depressive and anxiety symptoms. The most important risk factors were social isolation and fear of contracting COVID-19. The prevalence of clinically significant mood and anxiety symptoms increased by 39.8% from May 2020 to January 2021. Patient Health Questionnaire-9 and Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 scores were highly correlated and associated with nearly identical risk factors, suggesting that they are not capturing independent constructs in this sample. Principal component analysis identified seven orthogonal symptom domains with unique risk factors.

Clinically significant mood and anxiety symptoms are highly prevalent and persistent among health care workers, and are associated with numerous risk factors, the strongest of which are related to pandemic stressors and potentially modifiable. Interventions aimed at reducing social isolation and mitigating the impact of fear of infection warrant further study.