Depressive and Anxiety Symptoms of Healthcare Workers in Intensive Care Unit Under the COVID-19 Epidemic: An Online Cross-Sectional Study in China

Background: Since the coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) outbreak, intensive care unit (ICU) healthcare workers were responsible for the critical infected patients. However, few studies focused on the mental health of ICU healthcare workers. This study aimed to investigate the psychological impact of COVID-19 on ICU healthcare workers in China. Methods: We distributed the nine-item Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) and seven-item General Anxiety Disorder questionnaire (GAD-7) online to ICU healthcare workers in China. Respondents were divided into frontline and second-line according to whether they have contact with COVID-19 patients. Depressive and anxiety symptoms of all respondents were evaluated based on their questionnaire scores. Results: There were 731 ICU healthcare workers finally enrolled in our study, including 303 (41.5%) male, 383 (52.4%) doctors, and 617 (84.4%) aged 26-45 years. All in all, 482 (65.9%) ICU healthcare workers reported symptoms of depression, while 429 (58.7%) reported anxiety. There was no significant difference between frontline (n = 325) and second-line (n = 406) respondents in depression (P = 0.15) and anxiety severity (P = 0.56). Logistic regression analysis showed that being female, ICU work time >5 years, and night duty number >= 10 were risk factors of developing depressive and anxiety symptoms. Income reduction was separately identified as risk of anxiety. Additionally, ICU work time >5 years was also identified as risk of developing moderate-severe depressive and anxiety symptoms. Conclusions: Frontline ICU work was not associated with higher risk of depressive and anxiety symptoms during COVID-19 pandemic remission period in China. Actions like controlling night duty number, ensuring vacation, and increasing income should be taken to relieve mental health problem. Furthermore, we should pay close attention to those who had worked long years in ICU.