BACKGROUND: The extent and severity of post-COVID-19 mental health symptoms among frontline clinicians are not clear. This study compared mental health symptoms (i.e., depression, anxiety, and insomnia symptoms) and global quality of life (QOL) after the first COVID-19 outbreak between the COVID-19 treating and non-COVID-19 treating frontline clinicians.

METHODS: This cross-sectional, comparative, convenient-sampling study was conducted between October 13 and 22, 2020, which was five months after the first COVID-19 outbreak in China was brought under control. The severity of depression, anxiety, insomnia symptoms, and global QOL of the clinicians were assessed using the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 items (PHQ-9), Generalized Anxiety Disorder Scale—7 items (GAD-7), Insomnia Severity Index (ISI), and the World Health Organization Quality of Life Questionnaire—brief version (WHOQOL-BREF), respectively. The propensity score matching (PSM) method was used to identify comparable COVID-19 treating and non-COVID-19 treating frontline clinicians. A generalized linear model (GLM) was used to assess the differences in PHQ-9, GAD-7, ISI, and QOL scores between the COVID-19 treating and non-COVID-19 treating frontline clinicians.

RESULTS: In total, 260 COVID-19 treating frontline clinicians and 260 matched non- COVID-19 treating frontline clinicians were included. Non-COVID-19 treating frontline clinicians experienced more frequent workplace violence (WPV) than the COVID-19 treating frontline clinicians (χ 2 = 7.6, p = 0.006). COVID-19 treating frontline clinicians reported higher QOL compared to their nonCOVID-19 treating frontline counterparts (b = 0.3, p = 0.042), after adjusting for WPV experience. COVID-19 treating and nonCOVID-19 treating frontline clinicians reported similar PHQ-9, GAD-7, and ISI total scores (all p values > 0.05).

CONCLUSION: This study did not reveal more severe post-COVID-19 mental health symptoms in COVID-19 treating frontline clinicians compared to non-COVID-19 treating frontline clinicians. It is possible that the implementation of timely and appropriate mental health, social and financial supports could have prevented the worsening of mental health symptoms among the COVID-19 treating frontline clinicians after the first COVID-19 outbreak in China.