The Psychological Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on Health Care Workers in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands

The novel coronavirus disease pandemic has greatly compromised the physical, psychological and social lives of every single individual today. Healthcare workers (HCWs) have been instrumental in containing and alleviating the spread of the disease, risking their own lives as well as that of their families in this process. They face unprecedented stress and pressure at their workplace dealing with COVID-19 patients. The aim of this study was to assess the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the mental health of HCWs in a remote island. We devised a questionnaire to measure anxiety and depression levels using the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-4), HCW’s feelings towards their jobs, perceived stressors and motivational factors to encourage continuation of work in future outbreaks. Additionally, the Brief Resilience Scale was used to evaluate the levels of resilience in HCWs. A total of 143 HCWs working in a hospital / clinic setting from across the Andaman and Nicobar Islands responded to the questionnaire Out of 143 responses, 27.97% respondents showed signs of clinically significant anxiety and 30.07% of clinically significant depression as per the PHQ-4. Women reported higher symptoms of anxiety while men reported higher depressive symptoms that require treatment and management. Laboratory staff and paramedics reported highest symptoms of anxiety and depression, while doctors reported the least. Resilience was highest in doctors and lowest in lab staff as per the BRS. Women were found to be more resilient than men with mean scores of 3.26 and 3.15 respectively.  Further, remoteness of the islands was the fourth most stressful factor, the first three being fear of spreading the disease to friends and family, increasing number of positive cases and lack of a vaccine.