Physiological and Psychological Resilience Among Healthcare Workers in COVID–19 Units—The Protective Role of Religious Beliefs

The COVID-19 pandemic profoundly impacted global health, with disproportionate consequences for healthcare workers (HCWs). Religious beliefs and practices may improve psychological resilience by fostering community, providing purpose and giving meaning to hardships. Yet, how religiosity impacts HCWs during a time of crisis is unclear. We therefore performed a cross-sectional study to investigate how religiosity contributes to resilience among HCWs who were routinely exposed to high levels of stress during the pandemic, through a physiological measure (the Auditory Sustained Attention Test; ASAT) and psychological self-reports. Forty-two HCWs were recruited from COVID-19 units and 44 HCWs from general internal medicine units during June and July 2022. COVID-19 HCWs showed significantly elevated emotional and attentional dysregulation with the ASAT, as measured by acoustic startle and prepulse inhibition, that was undetectable with self-reports. Furthermore, after dividing the HCWs into a ‘high’ and ‘low’ religiosity group, those in the ‘low’ group showed higher emotional and attentional dysregulation with the ASAT. Findings suggest that the ASAT has greater sensitivity at detecting emotional and attentional dysregulations than self-reports. Moderate or high religiosity may lead to better performance on the ASAT which could suggest greater resilience to mental health problems in the face of a crisis.