Abstract
This cross-sectional research focused on studying the prevalence of mental health outcomes and preventive behaviors, and to examine work-related factors associated with mental health outcomes during the COVID-19 pandemic amongst the healthcare workers employed by the Ministry of Public Health Thailand. The data were collected by the online questionnaire from 12 health regions, 417 healthcare workers administered during the first wave (May 1-15, 2020). The Depression Anxiety and Stress Scale – 21 Items (DASS-21) Thai version was used to assess mental health outcomes. The Chi-square test was used to examine association between depression, anxiety and stress-related factors. The results found that 2.4%, 7.2%, and 3.9% of all respondents demonstrated severe to extremely severe depression, anxiety, and stress; while practices of preventive behaviors were as high as 82.0% of wearing masks and 76% of practicing hand-hygiene. The associated factors of mental health outcomes were: (i) working with COVID-19 inpatients; (ii) organizational management to ensure low infection risk; (iii) inadequate of personal protective equipment (PPE); (iv) work with the fear of contracting infection; (v) the non-adherence behavior of patients towards safety protocols. The study recommends that effective management practices towards reducing infection was predominant associating and modifiable factor of mental health outcome. In particular, this should be applied to the healthcare workers coming in direct contact with patients in the “new-emerging phase” or a “repeated wave” of COVID-19 outbreaks.
