Cited by 176COVID-19 and Mental HealthHealthcare professionals’ stress and burnoutOccupational Health and Burnout

Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the mental health of hospital staff: An umbrella review of 44 meta-analyses

Open access
Dragioti, Elena, Tsartsalis, Dimitrios, Mentis, Manolis, Mantzoukas, Stefanos, Gouva, Mary·2022·International Journal of Nursing Studies

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Hospital staff is at high risk of developing mental health issues during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. However, the literature lacks an overall and inclusive picture of mental health problems with comprehensive analysis among hospital staff during the COVID-19 pandemic. OBJECTIVES: To ascertain the prevalence of anxiety, depression and other mental health outcomes as reported in original articles among hospital staff during the COVID-19 pandemic. DESIGN: A PRISMA 2020 and MOOSE 2000 compliant umbrella review of published meta-analyses of observational studies evaluating the prevalence of mental health problems in hospital staff during the pandemic. REVIEW METHODS: index was employed to assess between-study heterogeneity. Publication bias using Egger test and LFK index was examined. Data was analyzed using STATA 17.0 software. AMSTAR-2 was applied for the quality assessment of systematic reviews, while we used GRADE to rate the quality of evidence. RESULTS: Forty-four meta-analyses from 1298 individual studies were included in the final analysis, encompassing the prevalence of 16 mental health symptoms. One-third of hospital workers reported anxiety (Prevalence: 29.9%, 95% CI:27.1% to 32.7%) and depression (Prevalence: 28.4%, 95% CI:25.5% to 31.3%) symptomatology, while about 40% (95% CI: 36.9% to 42.0%) suffered from sleeping disorders. Fear-related symptoms, reduced well-being, poor quality of life, and acute stress symptoms had the highest prevalence among hospital staff. However, the quality of evidence in these areas varied from low to very low. Nurses suffered more often from sleep problems and symptoms of anxiety and depression than doctors, whereas doctors reported a higher prevalence of acute stress and post-traumatic disorders. The burden of anxiety, depression, and sleep disorders was higher among female employees than their male counterparts. Remarkably, acute stress and insomnia affected more than half of first-line medical staff. CONCLUSIONS: The prevalence of mental health problems among hospital staff during the COVID-19 pandemic is generally high, with anxiety, depression and insomnia symptoms representing the most robust evidence based on a large dataset of prevalence meta-analyses. However, there is no strong confidence in the body of evidence for each outcome assessed. REGISTRATION: Not registered. TWEETABLE ABSTRACT: The COVID-19 pandemic is having a major impact on the mental health of hospital staff. The need for support must be different for nurses and doctors @eldi12345.

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1016/j.ijnurstu.2022.104272

Cites

90 of 90 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Claims the paper makes

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

The self-check needs the paper’s full text.

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

13 of the 103 references couldn’t be matched to a known paper.

Research works printed but not linked: 1

  1. Cénat J.M. Blais-Rochette C. Kokou-Kpolou C.K. Noorishad P.G. Mukunzi J.N. McIntee S.E. Dalexis R.D. Goulet M.A. Labelle P.R. Prevalence of symptoms of depression, anxiety, insomnia, posttraumatic stress disorder, and psychological distress among populations affected by the COVID-19 pandemic: a systematic review and meta-analysis Psychiatry Res. 295 2021 113599 PMC7689353 33285346

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Dragioti, E., Tsartsalis, D., Mentis, M., Mantzoukas, S., & Gouva, M.
Affiliations
  • Linköping University (SE)
  • Hippocration General Hospital (GR)
  • University of Patras (GR)
  • University of Ioannina (GR)
Corresponding author
Dragioti, Elena
Venue
International Journal of Nursing Studies
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Published
2022-07
Volume
131
Pages
104272
ISSN
0020-7489 (ISSN-L)
OpenAlex
W4224988184
Cited by
176
References
103
Citations by year
2026: 16 · 2025: 41 · 2024: 52 · 2023: 51 · 2022: 16
FWCI
36.53
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • International Journal of Nursing Studies (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • KTH Publication Database DiVA (KTH Royal Institute of Technology) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › COVID-19 and Mental Health
  • Health Sciences › Health Professions › General Health Professions › Healthcare professionals’ stress and burnout
  • Health Sciences › Health Professions › Occupational Therapy › Occupational Health and Burnout
Keywords
COVID-19 pandemic, hospital staff mental health, anxiety, depression, insomnia, sleep disorders, acute stress, post-traumatic stress disorder, nurses, physicians, gender differences, occupational stress, quality of life, well-being, umbrella review of meta-analyses, evidence quality assessment, publication bias, heterogeneity of results, AMSTAR
MeSH terms
COVID-19, Anxiety, Depression, Female, Humans, Sleep Initiation and Maintenance Disorders, Male, Mental Health, Personnel, Hospital, Quality of Life, Meta-Analysis as Topic, Prevalence, Pandemics

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review