. Anusha Divvi; . Shivashankar Kengadaran; . Lakshmi Subhashini Katuri; . Ravindranath Jampani; . Jayashri Prabakar; . Kavitha Muthukrishnan; . Sivabalakumaran Kengadaran
Volume 11, Issue 11 , December 2021, , Pages 1-5
Abstract
BACKGROUND: Health‑care workers (HCWs) are highly vulnerable to depression during anepidemic outbreak. Protecting the mental well‑being of HCWs is a priority while battling withCOVID‑19. ...
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BACKGROUND: Health‑care workers (HCWs) are highly vulnerable to depression during anepidemic outbreak. Protecting the mental well‑being of HCWs is a priority while battling withCOVID‑19. However, documentation on COVID‑19‑related depression among HCWs is scarcedue to the limited availability of measuring scales. Hence, this study was purposed to developa scale to measure depression relating to COVID-19 and evaluate its psychometric propertiesamong HCWs.MATERIALS AND METHODS: A validation study was carried out among 320 HCWs includingphysicians of various medical specialties, dental specialists, and nurses in the year 2020. Exploratoryfactor analysis using Promax rotation with Kaiser normalization for the determination of factor structurewas employed in data analysis using SPSS version 16 software.RESULTS: COVID-19 Depression Scale for HCWs (CDS‑HW) demonstrated a two-componentstructure identified as “work‑related anxiety” and “psychological distress.” The mean CDS‑HW scoreof the study participants was observed to be 23.67 ± 2.82, and the scale demonstrated good internalconsistency reliability (Cronbach’s alpha: 0.741).CONCLUSION: CDS‑HW is a rapidly administrable, valid, and reliable tool that can be used tomeasure COVID-19-related depression among HCWs.
