Psychosocial risk in healthcare workers after one year of COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic overwhelmed the capacity of the healthcare system, affecting the volume of demands and the care tasks of healthcare workers.

To examine the health indicators and exposure to psychosocial risks of Spanish healthcare workers 1 year into the COVID-19 pandemic and compare them with the results of the first wave.

We conducted a cross-sectional study using an online questionnaire (April-May 2020 and 2021). The data stem from the COTS 1 project database, corresponding to the first wave of COVID-19 (n = 1989) and COTS 2 (n = 1716) corresponding to 1 year later. The samples were independent. The prevalence of exposure to psychosocial risks and adverse health indicators was estimated for every occupational group, segregating the data by sex.

Professionals of all types presented worse perception of health. In general, the results were worse for women, while geriatric assistants presented the greatest exposure to psychosocial risk in COTS 2 compared to COTS 1. Sleep problems, high quantitative demands and high concern about becoming infected and spreading COVID-19 were cross-disciplinary in COTS 1, while worse perception of health, high pace of work, high work-life conflict and low development opportunities stood out in COTS 2.

Exposure to psychosocial risks was already high during the first wave and a significant decline in working conditions was observed. The prolongation of the pandemic exacerbated these results and seems to have multiplied the pre-existing inequalities between the axes of segregation in the labour market.