ArticlePloS one2021
Sense of coherence, social support and religiosity as resources for medical personnel during the COVID-19 pandemic: A web-based survey among 4324 health care workers within the German Network University Medicine.
Article in PloS one, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 41 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
41 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 62 citations in OpenAlex.
- Religiosity, Spirituality and Mental Health: Meta-analysis of Studies from the German-Speaking Area.Journal of religion and health · 2026Pooled it
- Pooled it
- Influencing Factors of Health Status of Clinical Doctors in Tertiary Medical Institutions Based on Structural Equation Modeling.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Psychological and Social Factors Associated With Reporting Post-COVID Symptoms Among German Healthcare Workers: A Cross-Sectional Study.Journal of clinical nursing · 2025Article
- Article
- Social support in a large general population sample over the course of six years.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- [Workload and mental health of nursing staff in Germany during the COVID-19 pandemic-a scoping review].Bundesgesundheitsblatt, Gesundheitsforschung, Gesundheitsschutz · 2025Article
- Unraveling the power of sense of coherence: a key predictor of symptom severity among depressive disorders clients.BMC nursing · 2025Article
- The relationship between burnout, sense of coherence and job safety attitudes among nurses after coronavirus disease 2019 in China: a cross-sectional survey.Frontiers in public health · 2025Article
- The unequal impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on young adults' mental health. Predictors of vulnerability and resilience using longitudinal birth cohort data in the UK.Journal of adolescence · 2025Article
- The mental health of first- and second-generation migrant vs. native healthcare workers during the COVID-19 pandemic: The VOICE survey of 7,187 employees in the German healthcare sector.Transcultural psychiatry · 2024Article
- [Workplace-related stress experience and mental health of healthcare workers during the COVID-19 pandemic: risk and protective factors from the VOICE study].Bundesgesundheitsblatt, Gesundheitsforschung, Gesundheitsschutz · 2024Article
- Using Heart Rate Variability to Assess Nurses' Stress During the COVID-19 Pandemic.Western journal of nursing research · 2024Observational
- [Against the mental stress-Resilient work in surgery].Chirurgie (Heidelberg, Germany) · 2024Review
- 'We are all in the same boat': a qualitative cross-sectional analysis of COVID-19 pandemic imagery in scientific literature and its use for people working in the German healthcare sector.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2024Article
- Exploring the relationship between resilience, sense of coherence, and social support in a sample of nurses during the spread of COVID-19: a mediation analysis study.Frontiers in public health · 2024Article
- Spirituality and anxiety in pastoral care workers and physicians in the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2024Article
- Consecutive Shifts: A Repeated Measure Study to Evaluate Stress, Biomarkers, Social Support, and Fatigue in Medical/Surgical Nurses.Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Article
- Pre- and Post-Pandemic Religiosity and Mental Health Outcomes: A Prospective Study.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2023Article
- Loneliness before and after COVID-19: Sense of Coherence and Hope as Coping Mechanisms.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
15 authors at 5 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
introductionThe COVID-19 pandemic resulted in severe detrimental effects on the mental well-being of health care workers (HCW). Consequently, there has been a need to identify health-promoting resources in order to mitigate the psychological impact of the pandemic on HCW.
objectiveOur objective was to investigate the association of sense of coherence (SOC), social support and religiosity with self-reported mental symptoms and increase of subjective burden during the COVID-19 pandemic in HCW.
methodsOur sample comprised 4324 HCW of four professions (physicians, nurses, medical technical assistants (MTA) and pastoral workers) who completed an online survey from 20 April to 5 July 2020. Health-promoting resources were assessed using the Sense of Coherence Scale Short Form (SOC-3), the ENRICHD Social Support Inventory (ESSI) and one item on religiosity derived from the Scale of Transpersonal Trust (TPV). Anxiety and depression symptoms were measured with the PHQ-2 and GAD-2. The increase of subjective burden due to the pandemic was assessed as the retrospective difference between burden during the pandemic and before the pandemic.
resultsIn multiple regressions, higher SOC was strongly associated with fewer anxiety and depression symptoms. Higher social support was also related to less severe mental symptoms, but with a smaller effect size, while religiosity showed minimal to no correlation with anxiety or depression. In professional group analysis, SOC was negatively associated with mental symptoms in all groups, while social support only correlated significantly with mental health outcomes in physicians and MTA. In the total sample and among subgroups, an increase of subjective burden was meaningfully associated only with a weaker SOC.
conclusionPerceived social support and especially higher SOC appeared to be beneficial for mental health of HCW during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the different importance of the resources in the respective occupations requires further research to identify possible reasons.
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