Assessment of the psychosocial impacts of COVID-19 among healthcare practitioners at two major hospitals in Lusaka district.
Date
2023
Authors
Chisanga, Kunda
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
The University of Zambia
Abstract
The present study assessed the psychosocial impacts of COVID-19 among healthcare practitioners in selected hospitals in Lusaka District. A survey research design was adopted in this study where 207 respondents were sampled from both UTH and Levy Mwanawasa Hospitals using simple random sampling. Self-rating Anxiety Scale (SAS) and the Participants Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) were used for data collection. Being a descriptive statistics analysis, organized data was analyzed by means of frequency distributions and percentages to describe the characteristics of the healthcare practitioners and presented in tables, pie and bar charts. The analysis of data was done using SPSS version 26. Further, the data was analyzed using descriptive statistics like mean and standard deviation. Furthermore, bivariate and multivariate analysis were performed to assess precautionary measures which improved the psychosocial impact of COVID-19 among healthcare practitioners. The results revealed that the majority of the participants reported fearing the disease and its consequences, especially death due to COVID-19. Further, the study showed that 60.9% of
the participants reported to be depressed, 70.1% were stressed and 76.8% experienced anxiety. The level of severity of depression categorized as none, mild, moderate, severe and extreme severe stood at 15.5%, 5.3%, 12.6%, 33.3% and 33.3%, respectively. With respect to the severity level of stress, the majority were severely stressed followed by those who were moderately stressed (None 21.2%, mild 9.2%, moderate 23.2%, severe 40.6%, and extreme severe 5.8%). In addition, the results of the study revealed that most of the respondents severely developed symptoms of anxiety followed by those with moderate symptoms of anxiety. The findings of the study also showed that the respondents agreed that positive attitudes from colleagues, hand washing and wearing of face mask, observing social distancing protocols, avoiding social gatherings, exercising regularly, were commonly reported as ways of coping with the threat of the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition, precautionary measures such as handwashing, exercise regularly, leisure activities in free time and seek help from a psychologist were significantly associated with improved psychosocial impact of COVID-19 among healthcare practitioners in a multiple logistic regression model. Thus, the study recommended the need for the Government through the Ministry of Health and other stakeholders to put in place measures to mitigate the negative impact of COVID-19 on the mental health of healthcare practitioners. In conclusion, many health workers experienced stress, anxiety and depression during the COVID-19. This calls for mitigation measures
because continued anxiety and depression can affect their work of taking care of the patients.
Description
Thesis of Master of Social Work and Community Development.