Depression and associated factors in the era of COVID 19 among frontline health care workers in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

A comparative cross sectional study

Abstract

Background: The prevalence of COVID-19 has been increasing starting from its first inception on the 31^st of December, 2019 in Wuhan, China. The pandemic has a multitude of effects of which impaired mental function among health care workers is the commonest one. Despite this fact, studies about the magnitude of depression are limited in Ethiopia. This study, therefore, aimed to determine the magnitude of depression and associated factors among frontline health care workers in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

Methods: Hospital-based comparative cross-section study was conducted from June 1^st to 30^th of 2020. Data were collected from 133 randomly selected frontline health care providers working at gynaecology and obstetrics units, and 266 frontline health care workers in COVID-19 treatment centers. Epi Info^TM7 software was used for data entry, cleaning and recoding of the data. Analyses were performed by using SPSS version 25 statistical software. The Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale was used to diagnose depression. The scale has 14 components of which seven are used to measure depression. Both bi-variable and multivariable logistic regression analyses were performed to identify factors associated with depression.

Result: In this study, 399 study subjects were included. The median age of study subjects in gynaecology and obstetrics was 27 years (interquartile range: 25, 29 years), and it was 27 years (interquartile range: 25, 30 years) in COVID-19 centres. The magnitude of depression was 64.7%, and 89.5% among frontline health care providers in obstetrics and gynaecology units, and COVID-19 treatment centers, respectively. Being ever trained about COVID-19 treatment and prevention, having social support and negative emotional response to stress were independently associated with depression among study subjects in obstetrics and gynaecology units.

Conclusion: Depression among frontline health care workers was found to be considerably high.  Having training about COVID-19, having a negative emotional response, living with family, and a low coping strategy to stress increased the likelihood of depression. However, having social support decreased the likelihood of depression. Post-training evaluation about the level of understanding and acceptance could help to decrease misperceptions towards COVID-19 promptly and manage it accordingly.