Healthcare workers’ heterogeneous mental-health responses to prolonging COVID-19 pandemic : a full year of monthly follow up in Finland
Rosenström, Tom; Tuisku, Katinka; Suvisaari, Jaana; Pukkala, Eero; Junttila, Kristiina; Haravuori, Henna; Elovainio, Marko; Haapa, Toni; Jylhä, Pekka; Laukkala, Tanja (2022-11)
Rosenström, Tom
Tuisku, Katinka
Suvisaari, Jaana
Pukkala, Eero
Junttila, Kristiina
Haravuori, Henna
Elovainio, Marko
Haapa, Toni
Jylhä, Pekka
Laukkala, Tanja
11 / 2022
724
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:tuni-202212078937
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:tuni-202212078937
Kuvaus
Peer reviewed
Tiivistelmä
Background: The COVID-19 pandemic strained healthcare workers but the individual challenges varied in relation to actual work and changes in work. We investigated changes in healthcare workers’ mental health under prolonging COVID-19 pandemic conditions, and heterogeneity in the mental-health trajectories. Methods: A monthly survey over a full year was conducted for employees of the HUS Helsinki University Hospital (n = 4804) between 4th June 2020 to 28th May 2021. Pandemic-related potentially traumatic events (PTEs), work characteristics (e.g., contact to COVID-19 patients), local COVID-19 incidence, and demographic covariates were used to predict Mental Health Index-5 (MHI-5) and Insomnia Severity Index (ISI) in generalized multilevel and latent-class mixed model regressions. Results: Local COVID-19 log-incidence (odds ratio, OR = 1.21, with 95% CI = 1.10–1.60), directly caring for COVID-19 patients (OR = 1.33, CI = 1.10–1.60) and PTEs (OR = 4.57, CI = 3.85–5.43) were all independently associated with psychological distress, when (additionally) adjusting for age, sex, profession, and calendar time. Effects of COVID-19 incidence on mental health were dissociable from calendar time (i.e., evolved in time) whereas those on sleep were not. Latent mental-health trajectories were characterized by a large class of “stable mental health” (62% of employees) and minority classes for “early shock, improving” (14%) and “early resilience, deteriorating” mental health (24%). The minority classes, especially “early shock, improving”, were more likely to live alone and be exposed to PTEs than the others. Conclusions: Healthcare workers faced changing and heterogeneous mental-health challenges as the COVID-19 pandemic prolonged. Adversity and mental ill-being may have accumulated in some employees, and factors like living arrangements may have played a role. Knowledge on employees’ demographic and socioeconomic background, as well as further research on the factors affecting employees’ resilience, may help in maintaining healthy and efficient workforce in the face of a prolonging pandemic.
Kokoelmat
- TUNICRIS-julkaisut [16882]