Impact of COVID-19 outbreak on Italian healthcare workers versus general population: results from an online survey

Objective: COVID-19 pandemic has been a stressful condition. We explored life changes and health-related consequences of COVID-19 outbreak in Italian health care workers in comparison to the general population. Methods: A total of 593 subjects participated to the online CoRonavIruS Health Impact Survey. Life events and changes, physical health, and worries were evaluated referring to 2-week prior the survey. Mood states and daily behavior were retrospectively evaluated referring to 3-month before COVID-19 (T1) and 2-week prior the survey (T2). Student t-test, Mann-Whitney test, and multivariate logistic regression analyses were run. Results: Five hundred and twenty-one subjects were analyzed (healthcare workers: n= 163, 31.84%; general population: n = 349, 68.16%). Healthcare workers were more likely to report fatigue and have spent more time outside home during the 2-week prior the survey than the general population (x2 (df)=266.03(17), p<0.001, R2=0.57). From T1 to T2, healthcare workers had a significant increase in negative mood, worry, restlessness, loneliness, and a decrease in happiness, while subjects from the general population had a statistically significant increase in negative mood, worry, attention, concentration difficulties, and a decrease in happiness, pleasure related to daily activities, time spent outdoors, alcohol use. Conclusion: In the framework of a growing literature on health care workers' status during the COVID-19 pandemic, the present study allowed to identify fatigue and loneliness as psychosomatic modifiable variables in need of being monitored and, possibly managed, to ameliorate the health status of health care workers.