The impact of workplace violence on the mental health of health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Introduction: The COVID-19 pandemic introduced a new set ofwork-related stressors for health care workers.

Objectives: This study aimed to investigate the associations between exposure to violence and common mental disorders among health care workers in emergency care settings during COVID-19 in the city of São Paulo, Brazil.

Methods: We randomly selected two emergency care units. The 12-item General Health Questionnaire was used to assess common mental disorders among emergency health care workers (n = 100). We examined the relationships between common mental disorders and COVID-19 pandemic-related variables, including availability of personal protective equipment, exposure to violence, discrimination, harassment, and confidence in the workplace to handle the pandemic. We used multivariate Poisson regression with robust variance to estimate prevalence ratios for common mental disorders.

Results: Overall, 50% (95%CI 39.8-60.1) of participants had a common mental disorder. In addition, 71% reported being victims of at least one type of violence during the COVID-19 pandemic. Higher risks ofcommon mental disorders were found among those who reported lacking personal protective equipment, being victims of discrimination, violence, or harassment, and reporting less confidence in the workplace to handle the pandemic. Participants exposed to two types of violence and three types of violence had higher prevalence ratios, with prevalence ratios of 2.28 (95%CI 1.23-4.21) and 3.14 (95%CI 1.62-6.08), respectively.

Conclusions: Promoting access to personal protective equipment, addressing mistreatment of health workers as well as promoting their well-being at work, and building confidence in the workplace to deal with the pandemic are critical.