Assessment of COVID-19 effect on healthcare workers' mental health, systematic review, and meta-analysis

The COVID-19 pandemic has the potential to affect the mental health of healthcare professionals who are at the forefront of fight against the pandemic. Therefore, understanding the mental status of healthcare professionals and the factors that may be associated is an urgent priority to better manage the outbreak. The purpose of this research is to analyze available evidence regarding the prevalence of depression, anxiety, burnout, and stress among healthcare workers during the COVID-19 pandemic and factors that may be associated. Records searched from various databases until November 1, 2020, were included in the study. A random-effects model was used for prevalence estimates. For each study, bias risk was assessed and then for the prevalence estimates, the values obtained both from all studies and studies with low bias risk were calculated. The research protocol is registered with PROSPERO and is available online. 72 studies were assessed for systematic review and 46 studies for meta-analysis. pooled prevalence was as follows for depression: 33.9% (26.4-41.4 95% Confidence Interval) for anxiety, 34.2% (29-39.4 95% CI), 45.5% (29.3-61,7 95% CI) for burnout, and 49.7% (34.5-64.9 95% CI) for stress. The prevalence obtained from studies with low risk of bias was as follows; 33.2% (21-45.5 95% Confidence Interval) for anxiety, 33.4% (27.3-39.4 95% CI) for depression, 39.6% (19.13-60, 2 95% CI) for burnout, and 55.2% (30.3-80.1 95% CI) for stress. It was concluded that the mental health status of those who are female, likely to be in close contact with COVID-19 patients, and hold the idea of not having sufficient personal protective equipment deteriorated more than the others. Majority of healthcare professionals who work under severe conditions due to the epidemic experience mental problems. The need to find ways to reduce mental health risks and arrange the appropriate interventions is urgent.