Depressive Symptoms of Public Health Medical Residents during the COVID-19 Pandemic, a Nation-Wide Survey: The PHRASI Study

Fabrizio Cedrone, Nausicaa Berselli, Lorenzo Stacchini, Valentina De Nicolò, Marta Caminiti, Angela Ancona, Giuseppa Minutolo, Clara Mazza, Claudia Cosma, Veronica Gallinoro, Alessandro Catalini*, Vincenza Gianfredi, Working Group on “Public Mental Health” 2021/2022 of the Medical Residents’ Assembly of the Italian Society of Hygiene and Preventive Medicine

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

Abstract

Depression is a widespread condition, which increased during the COVID-19 pandemic among healthcare workers as well. The large workload of the pandemic response also affected Public Health Residents (PHRs) who played an important role in infection prevention and control activities. This work aims to assess depression in Italian PHRs, based on data collected through the PHRASI (Public Health Residents’ Anonymous Survey in Italy) study. In 2022, 379 PHRs completed the self-administered questionnaire containing Patient Health Questionnaire-9 to evaluate clinically relevant depressive symptoms (PHQ-9 = 10). Multivariate logistic regression shows that the intention (aOR = 3.925, 95% CI = (2.067–7.452)) and the uncertainty (aOR = 4.949, 95% CI = (1.872–13.086)) of repeating the test to enter another postgraduate school/general practitioner course and the simultaneous attendance of two traineeships (aOR = 1.832, 95% CI = (1.010–3.324)) are positively related with depressive symptoms. Conversely, the willingness to work in the current traineeship place (aOR = 0.456, 95% CI = (0.283–0.734)) emerged as a protective factor. Similar results were obtained considering mild-to-severe (PHQ-9 = 5) depressive symptoms and/or stratifying by sex. The findings, suggesting the protective role of job satisfaction toward depression, might entail future interventions to improve the learning experience and promote work-life balance.
Original languageEnglish
Article number5620
Number of pages18
JournalInternational Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
Volume20
Issue number9
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 May 2023

Keywords

  • cross-sectional design
  • depression
  • healthcare personnel
  • job satisfaction
  • mental health
  • Patient Health Questionnaire
  • public health
  • schools

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