ArticleJournal of affective disorders2022
Prevalence and predictors of mental health outcomes in UK doctors and final year medical students during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Article in Journal of affective disorders, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 14 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
14 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 27 citations in OpenAlex.
- Prevalence of post-traumatic stress disorder in healthcare workers before and during COVID-19: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Frontiers in public health · 2026Pooled it
- Prevalence of posttraumatic stress symptoms among physicians - A meta-analysis.European psychiatry : the journal of the Association of European Psychiatrists · 2025Pooled it
- Enhanced Stress-Resilience Training (ESRT) for graduate-entry medical students: a randomised-controlled, mixed-method investigation.BMC medical education · 2025Trial
- Doctors with mental health difficulties and ADHD.Occupational medicine (Oxford, England) · 2025Article
- A Qualitative Examination of Job Satisfaction in Emergency Medicine From the Perspective of Physicians Also Working in Prehospital and Retrieval Medicine.Emergency medicine Australasia : EMA · 2025Article
- Self-care practices of professionals on residency programs in the state of Paraíba in Brazil and their implications for primary health care.BMC primary care · 2025Article
- Article
- Association of resilience and psychological flexibility with surgeons' mental wellbeing.BJS open · 2024Article
- Systematic Search and Scoping Review of Physicians' Intolerance of Uncertainty and Medical Decision-Making Uncertainties During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Summary of the Literature and Directions for Future Research.Journal of clinical psychology in medical settings · 2024Article
- Positive Mental Health Questionnaire (PMHQ) for Healthcare Workers: A Psychometric Evaluation.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Article
- Article
- Evaluation of an App-Delivered Psychological Flexibility Skill Training Intervention for Medical Student Burnout and Well-being: Randomized Controlled Trial.JMIR mental health · 2023Article
- Medical Student Experiences of Engaging in a Psychological Flexibility Skill Training App for Burnout and Well-being: Pilot Feasibility Study.JMIR formative research · 2023Article
- Unleashing the link between the relaxation of the COVID-19 control policy and residents' mental health in China: the mediating role of family tourism consumption.Frontiers in public health · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundThe mental health of doctors is an ongoing concern, both prior to and during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study aimed to: i) assess the prevalence of symptoms of depression, anxiety, PTSD, and burnout in UK doctors and final year medical students during the pandemic, and ii) analyse the hypothesised relationships between psychological flexibility, intolerance of uncertainty and resilience with these mental health outcomes.
methodsA cross-sectional online study of UK-based doctors and final year medical students was conducted between 27/09/2020 and 31/01/2021. Outcomes were measured using the PHQ9, GAD7, PCL-5, and aMBI. Independent variables included the CompACT-SF, IUS-12, and CD-RISC-10. Descriptive statistics, between-group analyses, and multiple regression were performed.
resultsPrevalence of anxiety symptoms was 26.3%, depression 21.9%, PTSD 11.8%, and burnout 10.8%. Psychological flexibility negatively predicted all outcomes, apart from low personal achievement. Intolerance of uncertainty positively predicted anxiety and PTSD scores. Resilience negatively predicted scores on burnout subscales. LIMITATIONS: Cross-sectional design and non-probability sampling method means that assumptions about causality cannot be made and may have implications for bias and generalisability of results.
conclusionDoctors and medical students in the UK reported high levels of mental health symptoms during the pandemic, between September 2020 and January 2021. All three independent variables explained significant variance in mental health outcomes. Psychological flexibility was the most consistent predictor, over and above sociodemographic variables and other psychological predictors. These findings have implications for interventions to improve retention of our essential medical workforce, and for providing support at future times of national crisis.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.