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Hindi A Comparison Of Hospital Worker Anxiety In COVID-19 Treating And Non- Treating Hospitals In The Same City During The COVID-19 Pandemic
*Corresponding Author: Milgrom Y, The Liver Unit, Hadassah University Hospital, Ein Kerem, Jerusalem, 911200, Israel, Tel: + 972-505172513, Email: yaelmil@hadassah.org.ilReceived Date: Jun 12, 2020 / Accepted Date: Jul 22, 2020 / Published Date: Jul 29, 2020
Citation: Milgrom Y, Tal Y, Finestone A (2020) A Comparison of Hospital Worker Anxiety in COVID-19 Treating and Non- Treating Hospitals in the Same City during the COVID-19 Pandemic. Occup Med Health Aff 8: 310.
Copyright: © 2020 Milgrom Y, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Abstract
Objective: The purpose of this study was to assess the effect on hospital worker anxiety resulting from an administrative decision of a medical organization during the COVID-19 pandemic to operate one of its two hospitals in same city as a COVID-19 treatment hospital (CTH), suspending all elective procedures and to have the second function as a non COVID-19 treating hospital (NCTH) offering general medical services.
Method: During the COVID-19 pandemic in Israel, while the country was under lock-down, an electronic questionnaire was sent to the CTH and to the NCTH, both part of the same medical organization in Jerusalem. The questionnaire surveys personal demographics and attitudes about COVID-19 and assesses present anxiety state using the 20-question portion of the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory for Adults (STAI-S) validated questionnaire. A STAI-S score of ≥45 was considered to represent clinical anxiety.
Results: Questionnaires were received from 1,570 (21%) of the hospital staffs. Among the responders, 35% of CTH workers and 29% of NCTH workers had STAI-S scores ≥ 45 (p = 0.04). Multivariable regression analysis showed that being a resident doctor (odds ration [OR] 2.13; 95% CL, 1.41-3.23; P = 0.0003), age ≤ 50 (OR, 2.08; 95% Cl, 1.62-2.67; P <.0001), being a nurse (OR, 1.29; 95% CL, 1.01-1.64; P = 0.399), female gender (OR, 1.63; 95% CL, 1.25-2.13; P = 0.0003) and having risk factors for COVID-19 (OR, 1.51; 95% CL, 1.19-1.91; P = 0.0007) were associated with the presence of clinical anxiety. Forty-three percent of the workers indicated that having good protective gear relieved their stress and 50% that concern with infecting their families increased their stress.
Conclusions: The creation of a CTH and a NCTH during the COVID-19 pandemic did not result in a difference between the clinical anxiety levels of the hospital workers of the two hospitals.
