An online cross-sectional survey of depression, anxiety, and stress among resident doctors working at a COVID-19 tertiary care center in India

Background: Health-care workers around the world are extending support to contain the COVID-19 pandemic. This unprecedented situation has put the health-care system under tremendous pressure. One of the underrepresented and under addressed area is that of psychological stress experienced by doctors in this time of crisis. Aim: The aim of the study was to evaluate for the symptoms of depression, anxiety, and stress among resident doctors working at a COVID-19 tertiary care center and the factors associated with their mental health status. Materials and Methods: An online cross-sectional survey of resident doctors was conducted over a 10-day period from June 1 to 10, 2020, through e-mail using a 2-part questionnaire – 1st part included information about sociodemographic profile and factors affecting the mental status and the 2nd included questions from the Depression, Anxiety, Stress Scale-21 (DASS-21). The scoring cutoffs for the presence of depression, anxiety, and stress symptoms were >9, 7, and 14, respectively. The responses were analyzed using SPSS version 22.0 (IBM) with P value as significant below 0.05 and all tests were two tailed. Results: Four hundred and thirty six out of 620 residents completed the survey yielding a response rate of 70.3%. A considerable proportion had symptoms of depression 132 (30.3%), anxiety 179 (41.1%), and stress 102 (23.4%). Females, first-line workers, those with a past history, and family history of mental illness had statistically significant higher scores on all three subscales of DASS-21. The number of working hours showed a significant positive correlation with symptoms of anxiety (r = 0.138, P = 0.004) and stress (r = 0.108, P = 0.024). Conclusion: One-third of respondents reported experiencing negative emotional states currently, indicating pandemic's psychological impact on frontline health workers. There is a need for mental health interventions targeting frontline health workers who are a crucial workforce in lower middle economy like India and promote their overall mental well-being.