ArticlePLOS mental health2025
Mental health of health care workers during and after the COVID-19 pandemic - A longitudinal cohort study.
Article in PLOS mental health, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 4 papers.
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Who cites it
4 citing papers in PubMed.
- Cumulative trauma, neural circuits, and burnout: an integrative model of healthcare worker post-traumatic stress syndromes.European journal of psychotraumatology · 2026Review
- Adverse mental health outcomes and alcohol misuse among UK Armed Forces personnel: fourth phase of a 20-year cohort study of military personnel who served during the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts.Occupational and environmental medicine · 2026Article
- "The Only People That Really Understand": A Qualitative Study of Healthcare Workers' COVID-19 Experiences and Implications for Workplace Support.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Vocational factors and mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic in middle-aged and older adults: longitudinal evidence from a population-based cohort.Frontiers in public health · 2026Article
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Authors and funding
7 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Health care workers (HCWs) faced more stressors during the COVID-19 pandemic, potentially increasing depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Insight into mental health dynamics and determinants in HCWs during the pandemic could help to maintain and improve mental health and resilience in future pandemics. In this longitudinal cohort study, HCWs received five surveys from November 2020 to March 2023 assessing self-reported symptoms of depression (PHQ-9), anxiety (GAD-7), PTSD (PCL-5), stress (PSS), burn-out (UBOS-EE), insomnia (ISI), resilience (RS) and work engagement (UWES). In addition to the longitudinal analysis, mental health symptoms were assessed in relation to possible predictors, e.g. patient care roles or prior SARS-CoV-2 infection. A total of 384 HCWs (95% of HCWs given consent) completed at least one survey, 326 (81%) completed two or more. Mental health significantly declined in December 2021 compared to November 2020, with mean increases of 1.16 (95% CI 0.73 to 1.58, d = 0.48), 0.79 (95% CI 0.41 to 1.17, d = 0.37) and 1.96 (95% CI 0.95 to 2.97, d = 0.35) on the PHQ-9 (range 0-27), GAD-7 (range 0-21) and PCL-5 (range 0-80), respectively, with similar results in multivariable analysis. Symptoms returned to November 2020 levels in March 2023. No differences were found regarding patient care roles, prior SARS-CoV-2 infection, years of work experience, or hospital workdays per week. Mental health significantly declined during the COVID-19 pandemic, after which mental health symptoms returned to baseline as the burden of COVID-19 patients decreased and public measures were lifted. This demonstrates this population's ability to successfully adapt to challenging experiences and emphasizes the need for support strategies tailored to the critical phases of any future healthcare crises.
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Registered trials
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