The prevalence of mental distress changes before and during the COVID-19 pandemic: a study on physicians in Turkey

Abstract

Background

The emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic may adversely affect the physicians’ mental health differently.

Aims

This study aimed to investigate the degree of changes in mental distress in physicians through two cross-sectional studies before and during the COVID-19 pandemic and explore factors associated with the change of mental distress status of participants between two-time periods.

Methods

This cross-sectional, web-based survey collected demographic data and mental health measurements with the 12-item General Health Questionnaire from 416 and 522 physicians before and during COVID-19, respectively. Mixed-effects ordinal logistic regression analyses were performed to assess the factors associated with the change of mental distress status.

Results

During the outbreak, a total of 319 of the 522 participants reported a clinically significant level of mental distress compared with 123 of 416 participants before COVID-19. Higher levels of mental distress were observed in all socio-demographic groups during COVID-19 compared with before, with more than two-fold higher prevalence of mental health deterioration in general.

Conclusions

This study suggests a significant deterioration in mental health status after the occurrence of COVID-19 compared with before. The mental health of physicians working in all medical specialty groups, especially those in internal and surgical specialties, may require special attention.

Keywords:

• Mental health
• physicians
• COVID-19
• coronavirus
• Turkey

Ethical approval

Ethical approval was obtained from the research ethics committee of medical sciences with reference number S.155287-0015 in a hospital. This study was conducted in accordance with helsinki principles. Informed consent was obtained from participants.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.