STRESS LEVELS AMONG COVID-19 PATIENTS, DOCTORS, AND PATIENT ATTENDANTS DURING THE PANDEMIC IN PAKISTAN
Main Article Content
Keywords
COVID-19, stress, doctor, attendant, patient, BMI’
Abstract
Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has seriously increased stress levels in the general public of Pakistan, which is intensely affecting the mental and physical health of people. To investigate the correlation between Body Mass Index, physical activity, and stress levels during the pandemic among COVID-19-infected individuals, healthcare providers, and patient caregivers in Pakistan.
Methods: This study was conducted at Khyber Teaching Hospital and Rehman Medical Hospital in Peshawar, Pakistan A ‘cross-sectional survey’ of confirmed corona-positive patients, doctors, and attendants. We used the ‘Perceived Stress Scale (PSS-14)’ to determine the perceived stress level among participants. The ‘Chi-square test, Spearman's correlation, and multivariate regression’ were used to establish an association between variables. Stress scores among groups were compared using the Mann–Whitney test.
Results: This study found that 95% of the doctors, ‘COVID-19 patients, and 85% of attendants had moderate stress’. ‘The mean perceived stress scores among the groups were significantly different’ (31.12±5.54 for doctors, 29.65±4.9 for COVID-19 patients, and 26.74±6.8 for attendants). Physical exercise highly significantly affected the PSS stress scores (p = 0.027) for the lower stress levels in people with physical activity than those without it. On the other hand, the overall stress scores were inversely related to BMI.
Conclusion: Most of the study subjects expressed moderate stress, whereas physical exercise-related low-stress status was seen; higher stress levels were positively associated with the increment of age. It is indeed very important to recognize and address the symptoms ‘of stress among COVID-19 patients, doctors, and attendants’.
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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
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Dr Fazeelat Hajra Karim
Lecturer, Department of Physiology, Khyber Girls Medical College, Peshawar Pakistan
Dr Shandana Wazir
Lecturer, Bacha Khan Medical College, Mardan Pakistan
Dr Ameena Palwasha
Senior Lecturer, Department of Physiology, Jinnah Medical College, Peshawar Pakistan
Dr Muhammad Mansoor Tariq
Department of Cardiac Surgery, Peshawar Institute of Cardiology, Peshawar Pakistan