Background: The present study was to assess the mental health status of the health care workers working in the Maternity and Child Hospital of Al Ahsa district of Saudi Arabia during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Material and Methods: It was a cross sectional survey. All the health care workers of MCH hospital were the study population. Well validated questionnaires were distributed online to the study population to fill them and submit them online. Data on depression was collected by using Zung Self-Rating 20 items depression Scale. Data entry, analytic and descriptive analysis was done by using the SPSS version 21 program. P value of 0.05 was considered as statistically significant. A valid consent was taken from each participant before starting the study.
Results: Out of 450 medical staffs, 409 participants responded making a response rate of 90%.The mean age of the participants was 34 years ±8(SD).Almost 87 percent of the participants were female. More than sixty four percent of the participants were nurse while twenty two percent, almost four percent and ten percent were doctors, pharmacists and technician respectively. More than thirty one percent of the participants were mildly depressed while six percent were moderately depressed and only 1.9% was severely depressed. The prevalence of depression was significantly more among doctors than the nurses, pharmacists and technician (48.88% vs. 37% vs. 30.76 and vs. 20% respectively p=0.05). The prevalence of depression was significantly more among the medical staff whose family member was affected by Covid-19 (59% Vs. 35.24, P=0.0001) .The participants who had Covid-19 infection were significantly more depressed (55.26% vs. 37.03%, p=0.023).At the same time depression was significantly more among the medical staffs who were in contact with COVID-19 patients (40.86% Vs.34.11% p=0.001)
Conclusion: Our study has highlighted the prevalence of self-reported depression among the medical staffs working in a Maternity and Child hospital of Saudi Arabia which was significantly high during COVID-19 outbreak.
