Intensive care unit professionals during the COVID-19 pandemic in Spain: social and work-related variables, COVID-19 symptoms, worries, and generalized anxiety levels
Open accessAbstract
BACKGROUND: The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 outbreak has been identified as a pandemic and global health emergency. It presents as a severe acute respiratory disease. The rapid dissemination of the disease created challenges for healthcare systems and forced healthcare workers (HCWs) to deal with many clinical and nonclinical stresses. The aim of our research is to describe work conditions, symptoms experienced by HCWs, worries about contagion, and generalized anxiety symptoms and compare those findings across regions in Spain. METHODS: This cross-sectional study was conducted using an online survey. Critical care units throughout Spain were included. The sample comprised HCWs working in intensive care units from March to May 2020. We assessed work variables, physical symptoms, worries about contagion, and anxiety (generalized anxiety disorder-7 questionnaire). RESULTS: The final sample comprised 448 surveys. Among the respondents, 86.9% (n=389) were nursing professionals, and 84.8% (n=380) were women. All participants cared for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients during the study period. Workload during the pandemic in Madrid was judged to be higher than in other regions (P<0.01). The availability of personal protective equipment was found to be higher in Cataluña. The most frequently experienced symptom was headaches (78.1%). Worries about self-infection and the possibility of infecting others received mean scores of 3.11 and 3.75, respectively. Mean scores for generalized anxiety levels were 11.02, with 58.7% of the professionals presenting with generalized anxiety syndrome during the assessment. CONCLUSIONS: In this study, we found high levels of anxiety among HCWs caring directly for COVID-19 patients, which could produce long-term psychological alterations that still need to be assessed.
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During the COVID-19 pandemic, younger professionals have been assessed as a group at risk of greater psycho-emotional disturbance.
“during the COVID-19 pandemic, have assessed younger professionals as a group at risk of suffering greater psycho-emotional disturbance (1).”
From Evolution of burnout syndrome in Spanish healthcare professionals during and after the COVID-19 pandemic: psychosocial variables involved (2025) · cites this paper as [1]
The Results (Sample Characteristics) report participants’ ages, and the Results (Worries about Infection and Anxiety) report anxiety levels for the sample overall. Neither passage assesses whether younger professionals faced greater psycho-emotional disturbance; searches for younger age, anxiety, and risk factors found no age-based comparison. (LLM, conf=0.74)
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References 48 · Cited by 19
- Authors
- García-Hedrera, F. J., Gil-Almagro, F., Carmona-Monge, F. J., Peñacoba-Puente, C., Catalá-Mesón, P., & Velasco-Furlong, L.
- Affiliations
- Hospital Universitario Fundación Alcorcón (ES)
- ORCID
- Venue
- Acute and Critical Care
- Published
- 2021-08-31
- Volume
- 36
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 232-241
- ISSN
- 2586-6052 (ISSN-L)
- 2586-6060
- PMC
- PMC8435439
- OpenAlex
- W3198669991
- Cited by
- 19
- References
- 48
- Citations by year
- 2025: 4 · 2024: 7 · 2023: 6 · 2022: 1 · 2021: 1
- FWCI
- 2.56
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- diamond
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Acute and Critical Care (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, other-oa)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- 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, intensive care unit staff, healthcare workers, generalized anxiety disorder, anxiety symptoms, working conditions, workload, personal protective equipment, fear of infection, occupational stress, nursing professionals
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