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Returning to the Workplace During the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Concerns of Australian Workers.

ABSTRACT: Purpose To determine the nature and prevalence of workers' concerns regarding workplaces reopening during the pandemic. To identify characteristics of workers and industries where particular concerns are more common. Method Prospective cohort study of 1063 employed Australian adults, enrolled at the start of the pandemic. Data on attitudes to workplaces reopening were collected 1 July-30 September 2020. The frequency of concerns describes infection risk and changes to work and impact on home life. Regression models examined associations between demographic and industry factors with reopening concerns. Results More than four in five (82.4%) of workers reported concerns about workplace infection risk. Just over half (53.4%) reported concerns about impacts to work and home life. Concerns were more prevalent for workers reporting psychological distress, financial stress, and among those exclusively working from home. Concerns regarding infection risk were common for workers in health care (IRR 1.16, 95% CI [1.01, 1.33]), retail (IRR 1.31, 95% CI [1.06, 1.61]), and accommodation/food service industries (IRR 1.25, 95% CI [1.01, 1.55]). Concerns regarding changes to work and home life were more common for female workers (IRR 1.24, 95% CI [1.07, 1.43]), and partners/spouses with dependent children (IRR 1.44, 95% CI [1.16, 1.79]). Conclusion Concerns of COVID-19 infection in the workplace are common. Many workers are also concerned about changes to their work and home life. The prevalence of concerns is related to the nature of work and responsibilities at home. Actions that reduce risk of workplace transmission, coupled with effective communication of infection controls, may alleviate worker concerns whilst recognising workers' family and social circumstances.

SUBMITTER: Griffiths D

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8204924 | biostudies-literature |

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Project description:ObjectiveTo identify the prevalence and predictors of (a) thoughts of suicide or self-harm among healthcare workers during the COVID-19 pandemic and (b) help-seeking among those healthcare workers with thoughts of suicide or self-harm.MethodAnalysis of data from the Australian COVID-19 Frontline Healthcare Workers Study, an online survey of healthcare workers conducted during the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in Australia. Outcomes of interest were thoughts of suicide or self-harm as measured through the Patient Health Questionnaire for depression and help-seeking behaviours.ResultsOverall, 819 (10.5%) of 7795 healthcare workers reported thoughts of suicide or self-harm over a 2-week period. Healthcare workers with these thoughts experienced higher rates of depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder and burnout than their peers. In multivariable models, the odds of suicide or self-harm thoughts were higher among workers who had friends or family infected with COVID-19 (odds ratio = 1.24, 95% confidence interval = [1.06, 1.47]), were living alone (odds ratio = 1.32, 95% confidence interval = [1.06, 1.64]), younger (⩽30 years cf. >50 years; odds ratio = 1.70, 95% confidence interval = 1.36-2.13), male (odds ratio = 1.81, 95% confidence interval = [1.49, 2.20]), had increased alcohol use (odds ratio = 1.58, 95% confidence interval = [1.35, 1.86]), poor physical health (odds ratio = 1.62, 95% confidence interval = [1.36, 1.92]), increased income worries (odds ratio = 1.81, 95% confidence interval = [1.54, 2.12]) or prior mental illness (odds ratio = 3.27, 95% confidence interval = [2.80, 3.82]). Having dependent children was protective (odds ratio = 0.75, 95% confidence interval = [0.61, 0.92]). Fewer than half (388/819) of the healthcare workers who reported thoughts of suicide or self-harm sought professional support. Healthcare workers with thoughts of suicide or self-harm were more likely to seek support if they were younger (⩽30 years cf. >50 years; odds ratio = 1.78, 95% confidence interval = [1.13, 2.82]) or had prior mental health concerns (odds ratio = 4.47, 95% confidence interval = [3.25, 6.14]).ConclusionOne in 10 Australian healthcare workers reported thoughts of suicide or self-harm during the pandemic, with certain groups being more vulnerable. Most healthcare workers with thoughts of suicide or self-harm did not seek professional help. Strong and sustained action to protect the safety of healthcare workers, and provide meaningful support, is urgently needed.

Project description:ImportanceMental health and coping difficulties among health care workers (HCWs) have been reported during pandemics and particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic.ObjectiveTo examine sources of distress and concern for HCWs in Canada during the COVID-19 pandemic.Design, setting, and participantsIn this qualitative study, a critical discourse analysis was performed of questions posed by HCWs to hospital senior leadership between March 16, 2020, and December 1, 2020, through an online employee forum as part of a larger mixed-methods evaluation of a stepped-care mental health support program for HCWs at 1 of Canada's largest health care institutions. Questions could be submitted online anonymously in advance of the virtual forums on COVID-19 by any of the University Health Network's 21 555 employees, and staff members were able to anonymously endorse questions by upvoting, indicating that an already posed question was of interest.Main outcomes and measuresThemes, text structure, and rhetorical devices used within the questions were analyzed, taking into consideration their larger institutional and societal context.ResultsUnique individual views of the forums ranged from 2062 to 7213 during the study period. Major individual-level concerns related to risks of contamination and challenges coping with increased workloads as a result of the pandemic intersected with institutional-level challenges, such as feeling or being valued within the health care setting and long-standing stratifications between types of HCWs. Concerns were frequently reported in terms of calls for clarity or demands for transparency from the institutional leadership.Conclusions and relevanceThe findings of this qualitative study suggest that larger institutional-level and structural concerns need to be addressed if HCWs are to be engaged in support and coping programs. Potential service users may be dissuaded from seeing their needs as being met by workplace mental health interventions that solely relate to individual-level concerns.

Project description:BACKGROUND:The recent coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic is taking a toll on the world's health care infrastructure as well as the social, economic, and psychological well-being of humanity. Individuals, organizations, and governments are using social media to communicate with each other on a number of issues relating to the COVID-19 pandemic. Not much is known about the topics being shared on social media platforms relating to COVID-19. Analyzing such information can help policy makers and health care organizations assess the needs of their stakeholders and address them appropriately. OBJECTIVE:This study aims to identify the main topics posted by Twitter users related to the COVID-19 pandemic. METHODS:Leveraging a set of tools (Twitter's search application programming interface (API), Tweepy Python library, and PostgreSQL database) and using a set of predefined search terms ("corona," "2019-nCov," and "COVID-19"), we extracted the text and metadata (number of likes and retweets, and user profile information including the number of followers) of public English language tweets from February 2, 2020, to March 15, 2020. We analyzed the collected tweets using word frequencies of single (unigrams) and double words (bigrams). We leveraged latent Dirichlet allocation for topic modeling to identify topics discussed in the tweets. We also performed sentiment analysis and extracted the mean number of retweets, likes, and followers for each topic and calculated the interaction rate per topic. RESULTS:Out of approximately 2.8 million tweets included, 167,073 unique tweets from 160,829 unique users met the inclusion criteria. Our analysis identified 12 topics, which were grouped into four main themes: origin of the virus; its sources; its impact on people, countries, and the economy; and ways of mitigating the risk of infection. The mean sentiment was positive for 10 topics and negative for 2 topics (deaths caused by COVID-19 and increased racism). The mean for tweet topics of account followers ranged from 2722 (increased racism) to 13,413 (economic losses). The highest mean of likes for the tweets was 15.4 (economic loss), while the lowest was 3.94 (travel bans and warnings). CONCLUSIONS:Public health crisis response activities on the ground and online are becoming increasingly simultaneous and intertwined. Social media provides an opportunity to directly communicate health information to the public. Health systems should work on building national and international disease detection and surveillance systems through monitoring social media. There is also a need for a more proactive and agile public health presence on social media to combat the spread of fake news.

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Returning to the Workplace During the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Concerns of Australian Workers.

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