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Depressive Symptoms of Public Health Medical Residents during the COVID-19 Pandemic, a Nation-Wide Survey: The PHRASI Study.

Fabrizio CedroneNausicaa BerselliLorenzo StacchiniValentina De NicolòMarta CaminitiAngela AnconaGiuseppa MinutoloClara MazzaClaudia CosmaVeronica GallinoroAlessandro CataliniVincenza Gianfredinull On Behalf Of The Working Group On Public Mental Health/Of The Medical Residents' Assembly Of The Italian Society Of Hygiene And Preventive Medicine
Published in: International journal of environmental research and public health (2023)
Depression is a widespread condition, which increased during the COVID-19 pandemic among healthcare workers as well. The large workload of the pandemic response also affected Public Health Residents (PHRs) who played an important role in infection prevention and control activities. This work aims to assess depression in Italian PHRs, based on data collected through the PHRASI (Public Health Residents' Anonymous Survey in Italy) study. In 2022, 379 PHRs completed the self-administered questionnaire containing Patient Health Questionnaire-9 to evaluate clinically relevant depressive symptoms (PHQ-9 ≥ 10). Multivariate logistic regression shows that the intention (aOR = 3.925, 95% CI = (2.067-7.452)) and the uncertainty (aOR = 4.949, 95% CI = (1.872-13.086)) of repeating the test to enter another postgraduate school/general practitioner course and the simultaneous attendance of two traineeships (aOR = 1.832, 95% CI = (1.010-3.324)) are positively related with depressive symptoms. Conversely, the willingness to work in the current traineeship place (aOR = 0.456, 95% CI = (0.283-0.734)) emerged as a protective factor. Similar results were obtained considering mild-to-severe (PHQ-9 ≥ 5) depressive symptoms and/or stratifying by sex. The findings, suggesting the protective role of job satisfaction toward depression, might entail future interventions to improve the learning experience and promote work-life balance.
Keyphrases
  • depressive symptoms
  • public health
  • social support
  • sleep quality
  • cross sectional
  • healthcare
  • mental health
  • global health
  • data analysis
  • case report
  • coronavirus disease
  • early onset
  • current status
  • big data
  • social media