Cited by 234COVID-19 and Mental HealthHealthcare professionals’ stress and burnoutOccupational Health and Burnout

COVID-19 pandemic effects on health worker's mental health: systematic review and meta-analysis

Open access
Aymerich, Claudia, Pedruzo, Borja, Pérez, Jose Luís, Laborda, Maria, Herrero, Jon, Blanco, Jorge, Mancebo, Gonzalo, Andrés, Lucía +5 more·2022·European Psychiatry

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Healthcare workers (HCWs) exposed to coronavirus 19 (COVID-19) are at high risk of developing mental health concerns across several domains. The aim of this study is to determine the updated, global frequency of these outcomes. METHODS: A multistep literature search was performed from database inception until March 1, 2021. PRISMA/MOOSE-compliant systematic review and PROSPERO protocol were used to identify studies reporting on depression, anxiety, acute stress, post-traumatic symptoms, insomnia, and burnout in HCWs exposed to COVID-19. A quantitative meta-analysis with random effects was conducted to analyze the proportion rate of the mental health disorders. Sensitivity analyses were performed to investigate the effect of the different continents and scales. Meta-regression analyses were conducted to examine the effect of gender, age, and work position. RESULTS: 239 articles were included (n = 271,319 HCWs, mean age = 36.08 ± 8.33 (66.99% female). 33% HCWs exposed to COVID-19 reported depressive symptoms (95% confidence intervals [CI] = 28-38%), 42% anxiety features (95% CI = 35-48), 40% acute stress (95% CI = 32-47), 32% post-traumatic symptoms (95% CI = 26-37%), 42% insomnia (95% CI = 36-48), 37% burnout (95% CI = 31-42). Sensitivity analyses did not show statistically significant differences. Meta-regressions found a statistically significant lower prevalence of post-traumatic symptoms in Asia. CONCLUSIONS: HCWs exposed to COVID-19 were found to have a significant prevalence of mental health concerns in all domains analyzed. The effects of COVID-19 on HCWs' mental health could be underestimated and the future consequences dismissed.

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 · 10.1192/j.eurpsy.2022.1

Cites

79 of 79 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?

  • A considerable proportion of nurses experienced high levels of depression, anxiety, psychological distress, post-traumatic symptoms, burnout, and insomnia during COVID-19.

    “Studies reported that a considerable proportion of nurses were experiencing high levels of depression, anxiety, psychological distress, post-traumatic symptoms, burnout, and insomnia (4–6).”

    From Translation, adaptation, and initial evaluation of a guided self-help intervention to reduce psychological distress among nurses during COVID-19 in China (2023) · cites this paper as [4]

    The Results and Discussion report substantial prevalence of depression, anxiety, acute stress, post-traumatic symptoms, burnout, and insomnia among healthcare workers exposed to COVID-19. These are findings for healthcare workers overall, not nurses specifically; the paper reports acute stress rather than a separate measure of psychological distress. The passages have no page numbers in our copy. (LLM, conf=0.87)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured

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

1 retracted

Flagged first, then by citations

2 of the 81 references couldn’t be matched to a known paper.

Research works printed but not linked: 1

  1. [47]Weiss DS, Marmar CR. The impact of event scale—Revised. In: Wilson JP, Keane TM, editors. Assessing psychological trauma and PTSD: a handbook for practitioners, New York:– Guilford Press; 1997, pp. 399– 411.

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Aymerich, C., Pedruzo, B., Pérez, J. L., Laborda, M., Herrero, J., Blanco, J., Mancebo, G., Andrés, L., Estévez, O., Fernandez, M., Salazar de Pablo, G., Catalan, A., & González-Torres, M. Á.
Affiliations
Hospital de Basurto (ES)
Venue
European Psychiatry
Published
2022
Volume
65
Issue
1
Pages
e10-e10
ISSN
  • 0924-9338 (ISSN-L)
  • 1778-3585
OpenAlex
W4205390693
Cited by
234
References
81
Citations by year
2026: 18 · 2025: 34 · 2024: 74 · 2023: 82 · 2022: 26
FWCI
9.00
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • European Psychiatry (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • Communities in ADDI (Universidad del Pais Vasco) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
  • Communities in ADDI (University of the Basque Country) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
  • DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion)
  • Hispana (submittedVersion, cc-by)
  • Research Portal (King's College London) (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, healthcare workers, mental health, depression, anxiety, acute stress, posttraumatic stress symptoms, insomnia, burnout, prevalence, occupational exposure
MeSH terms
COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2, Depression, Female, Humans, Male, Mental Health, 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