Mental health and protective strategies among community-based health workers in region 3, Philippines during COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

The COVID-19 crisis in the Philippines posed both physical and psychological threats to health workers. It is vital to determine practices to protect them. This study determined the prevalence of mental health outcomes among community-based health workers during the COVID-19 pandemic and examined the association of protective strategies with symptoms of mental health outcomes. A cross-sectional study design was applied to the records of community-based health workers conducted through online psychological assessment by Department of Health - Central Luzon between September 1-30, 2020. Respondents’ age, sex, mental health status, and protective strategies were extracted using Abstraction Form, and analyses were done using OpenEpi. A total of 324 records of community-based health workers were included in the analysis. Ten percent of the respondents present symptoms of stress, 26% anxiety symptoms, and 18% depressive symptoms. The majority of the respondents were using deep breathing techniques, having a constant social connection with family and friends, and engaging in their regular spiritual/religious activities as protective strategies during the pandemic. Engagement in regular spiritual/religious practices was found associated with symptoms of stress through Fisher’s exact test. Participants who engaged in religious/spiritual practices were less likely to report symptoms of stress. Community-based health workers showed evident rates of symptoms of stress, anxiety, and depression. The majority of the participants engaged in various protective strategies but only engagement in regular religious/spiritual practices was found associated with symptoms of stress.

Keywords:

• Mental health
• protective strategies
• health workers
• pandemic
• COVID-19

Acknowledgement

I would like to express my gratitude to the team of Dr. Carmen Tolabing for providing us invaluable guidance throughout this research. To DOST-PCHRD and DOH, thank for providing great opportunities to work at the DOH and to accomplish this research. Also, I express my appreciations to all the staff of Research and Development Office and Mental Health Program of CLCHD who assisted me in completing this project.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Funding

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