IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/socpsy/v70y2024i1p87-98.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Did the prevalence of depressive symptoms change during the COVID-19 pandemic? A multilevel analysis on longitudinal data from healthcare workers

Author

Listed:
  • Stephanie Hoffmann
  • Susanne Schulze
  • Antje Löffler
  • Juliane Becker
  • Frank Hufert
  • Heinz-Detlef Gremmels
  • Christine Holmberg
  • Michael A Rapp
  • Sonja Entringer
  • Jacob Spallek

Abstract

Background: Healthcare workers (HCW) are at high risk to develop mental health problems during the COVID-19 pandemic because of additional work load, perceived stress, and exposure to patients with COVID-19. Currently, there are few studies on change over time in the prevalence of depressive symptoms during pandemic start among HCW. Thus, the aims of the current study were to examine whether depressive symptoms increased during the pandemic and were associated with perceived stress and own COVID-19 infection and workplace exposure to virus-infected patients. Methods: The cohort study used longitudinal data from HCW collected monthly (July 2020 till December 2020) during the first year of the pandemic before vaccination became available. The sample of n  = 166 was drawn from a German hospital and included medical (e.g. nurses, therapists, and physicians) and administrative staff. Using multilevel models, we analyzed the change in depressive symptoms [assessed with General Depression Scale (GDS), a validated German version of the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale (CES-D)] and its association with perceived stress across the study period. Laboratory-confirmed own infection was tested as a potential moderator in this context. Subscales of the GDS were used to examine change over time of depressive symptom modalities (e.g. emotional, somatic, and social interactions (β, 95% confidence interval). Results: Depression scores increased significantly during the study period (β = .03, 95% CI [0.02, 0.05]). Perceived stress was associated with depressive symptoms (β = .12, 95% CI [0.10, 0.14]) but did not change over time. Exposure to COVID-19 infection was associated with a higher increase of depressive symptoms (β = .12, 95% CI [0.10, .14]). Somatic symptoms of depression increased among medical HCW with workplace exposure to COVID-19 (β = .25, 95% CI [0.13, 0.38]), but not in administrators (β = .03, 95% CI [−0.04, 0.11]). Conclusion: Research is needed to identify factors that promote the reduction of depressive symptoms in medical HCW with exposition to COVID-19 patients. Awareness of infection protection measures should be increased.

Suggested Citation

  • Stephanie Hoffmann & Susanne Schulze & Antje Löffler & Juliane Becker & Frank Hufert & Heinz-Detlef Gremmels & Christine Holmberg & Michael A Rapp & Sonja Entringer & Jacob Spallek, 2024. "Did the prevalence of depressive symptoms change during the COVID-19 pandemic? A multilevel analysis on longitudinal data from healthcare workers," International Journal of Social Psychiatry, , vol. 70(1), pages 87-98, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:socpsy:v:70:y:2024:i:1:p:87-98
    DOI: 10.1177/00207640231196737
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/00207640231196737
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/00207640231196737?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Horváth, Lajos & Kokoszka, Piotr & Rice, Gregory, 2014. "Testing stationarity of functional time series," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 179(1), pages 66-82.
    2. R Nicholas Carleton & Michel A Thibodeau & Michelle J N Teale & Patrick G Welch & Murray P Abrams & Thomas Robinson & Gordon J G Asmundson, 2013. "The Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale: A Review with a Theoretical and Empirical Examination of Item Content and Factor Structure," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 8(3), pages 1-11, March.
    3. Bell, Andrew & Jones, Kelvyn, 2015. "Explaining Fixed Effects: Random Effects Modeling of Time-Series Cross-Sectional and Panel Data," Political Science Research and Methods, Cambridge University Press, vol. 3(1), pages 133-153, January.
    4. Thanh-Long Giang & Dinh-Tri Vo & Quan-Hoang Vuong, 2020. "COVID-19: A Relook at Healthcare Systems and Aged Populations," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(10), pages 1-10, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Gutiérrez-Romero, Roxana & Ahamed, Mostak, 2021. "COVID-19 response needs to broaden financial inclusion to curb the rise in poverty," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 138(C).
    2. Wu, Yu & Mullan, Katrina & Biggs, Trent & Caviglia-Harris, Jill L. & Harris, Daniel & Sills, Erin O., 2018. "Do Forests Provide Watershed Services to Local Populations in the Humid Tropics? Evidence from the Brazilian Amazon," 2018 Annual Meeting, August 5-7, Washington, D.C. 274012, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    3. Horváth, Lajos & Rice, Gregory & Whipple, Stephen, 2016. "Adaptive bandwidth selection in the long run covariance estimator of functional time series," Computational Statistics & Data Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 100(C), pages 676-693.
    4. Casini, Alessandro & Perron, Pierre, 2024. "Change-point analysis of time series with evolutionary spectra," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 242(2).
    5. Kasraian, Dena & Maat, Kees & van Wee, Bert, 2018. "Urban developments and daily travel distances: Fixed, random and hybrid effects models using a Dutch pseudo-panel over three decades," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 228-236.
    6. Horváth, Lajos & Rice, Gregory & Zhao, Yuqian, 2022. "Change point analysis of covariance functions: A weighted cumulative sum approach," Journal of Multivariate Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 189(C).
    7. Bruno S. Frey & Anthony Gullo, 2021. "Does Sports Make People Happier, or Do Happy People More Sports?," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 22(4), pages 432-458, May.
    8. Panarello, Demetrio, 2021. "Economic insecurity, conservatism, and the crisis of environmentalism: 30 years of evidence," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 73(C).
    9. Amira Elayouty & Marian Scott & Claire Miller, 2022. "Time-Varying Functional Principal Components for Non-Stationary EpCO $$_2$$ 2 in Freshwater Systems," Journal of Agricultural, Biological and Environmental Statistics, Springer;The International Biometric Society;American Statistical Association, vol. 27(3), pages 506-522, September.
    10. Arjan H Schakel & A J Brown, 2022. "Dissecting Public Opinion on Regional Authority: Four Types of Regionalists Based on Citizens’ Preferences for Self-Rule and Shared Rule," Publius: The Journal of Federalism, CSF Associates Inc., vol. 52(2), pages 310-328.
    11. Ryan H. Murphy & Colin O’Reilly, 2023. "Freedom through taxation: the effect of fiscal capacity on the rule of law," European Journal of Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 56(1), pages 69-90, August.
    12. Jan Hoffmann & Naima Saeed & Sigbjørn Sødal, 2020. "Liner shipping bilateral connectivity and its impact on South Africa’s bilateral trade flows," Maritime Economics & Logistics, Palgrave Macmillan;International Association of Maritime Economists (IAME), vol. 22(3), pages 473-499, September.
    13. Julien Hanoteau, 2023. "Do foreign MNEs alleviate multidimensional poverty in developing countries?," Eurasian Business Review, Springer;Eurasia Business and Economics Society, vol. 13(4), pages 719-749, December.
    14. Elisa Barbieri & Manli Huang & Shenglei Pi & Mattia Tassinari, 2017. "Restructuring the Production of Medicines: An Investigation on the Pharmaceutical Sector in China and the Role of Mergers and Acquisitions," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 14(10), pages 1-21, October.
    15. Vial, Virginie & Hanoteau, Julien, 2015. "Returns to Micro-Entrepreneurship in an Emerging Economy: A Quantile Study of Entrepreneurial Indonesian Households’ Welfare," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 142-157.
    16. Isabel Neira & Fernando Bruna & Marta Portela & Adela García-Aracil, 2018. "Individual Well-Being, Geographical Heterogeneity and Social Capital," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 19(4), pages 1067-1090, April.
    17. Damien Rousselière, 2019. "A Flexible Approach to Age Dependence in Organizational Mortality: Comparing the Life Duration for Cooperative and Non-Cooperative Enterprises Using a Bayesian Generalized Additive Discrete Time Survi," Journal of Quantitative Economics, Springer;The Indian Econometric Society (TIES), vol. 17(4), pages 829-855, December.
    18. T.E. Uberti & M.A. Maggioni & E. Marrocu & S. Usai, 2023. "The role of localised, recombinant and exogenous technological change in European regions," Working Paper CRENoS 202303, Centre for North South Economic Research, University of Cagliari and Sassari, Sardinia.
    19. Qiang Ji & Dayong Zhang & Yuqian Zhao, 2022. "Intra-day co-movements of crude oil futures: China and the international benchmarks," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 313(1), pages 77-103, June.
    20. Adenuga, Adewale Henry & Davis, John & Hutchinson, George & Donnellan, Trevor & Patton, Myles, 2018. "Estimation and determinants of phosphorus balance and use efficiency of dairy farms in Northern Ireland: A within and between farm random effects analysis," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 164(C), pages 11-19.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:socpsy:v:70:y:2024:i:1:p:87-98. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.