Singapore, Apr 7 (IANS): Researchers have revealed that non-medical healthcare personnel are at the highest risk for psychological distress during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

The survey of healthcare workers from two major tertiary institutions in Singapore who were caring for patients with COVID-19 suggests that non-medical healthcare personnel are at the highest risk for psychological distress related to the pandemic.

According to the study, published in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine, understanding the psychological impact of the COVID-19 outbreak among health care workers is crucial in guiding policies and interventions to maintain their psychological well-being.

For the findings, researchers from the National University of Singapore used a self-administered questionnaire to examine the psychological distress, depression, anxiety, and stress experienced by healthcare workers in Singapore in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic and compared these outcomes between medically and non-medically trained hospital personnel.

They found that the medically trained workers scored significantly lower on measures of depression and anxiety and the impact of the event. Nonmedical health care workers had a higher prevalence of anxiety even after adjustment for possible confounders.

These findings are consistent with those of a recent COVID-19 study demonstrating that frontline nurses had significantly lower vicarious traumatisation scores than non-frontline nurses and the general public.

According to the researchers, reasons for this may include reduced accessibility to formal psychological support, less first-hand medical information on the outbreak, less intensive training on personal protective equipment and infection control measures.