Comparative Analysis of Psychological Response of Medical Staff and Other Population Groups to the COVID-19 Pandemic (Results of Our Own Research)

Purpose. To study the characteristics of responding to a current stressful situation caused by the
COVID-19 pandemic of various contingents of the population, including medical workers who do
not work directly with COVID-19 patients.
Materials and methods. 132 respondents were surveyed online. The questionnaire included
biometric indicators, questions for evaluating the relevance to the COVID-19 pandemic, and the
Spielberger – Hanin scale. For statistical analysis, the Kruskal – Wallis test, the Mann – Whitney
U test, and Pearson χ2 were used. Depending on the fi eld of activity, all respondents were divided
into 4 groups: health professionals working in another fi eld, those receiving education, and people
without permanent employment.
Results. The changes were recorded in the general sample, indicating the increase of the level of
anxiety due to the current stressful situation. Statistically signifi cant intergroup diff erences were
revealed (with signifi cance level p≤0.05) in terms of constitutional and situational anxiety refl ecting
the current state of the individual: respondents with a high level of personal anxiety were found
more often in the groups of healthcare professionals and those receiving education than among
the other two groups; they also registered the increase of the level of situational anxiety to high
rates, quantitatively most pronounced in the group of health workers (for the majority), qualitatively
in those receiving education, where 1/3 of the respondents recorded extremely high, clinically
signifi cant levels. Whereas in the other 2 groups there was an opposite tendency – to react with low
levels of situational anxiety in a signifi cant part of cases.
Conclusion. Medical workers and educators are the most vulnerable population in terms of overresponse
to stressful situations. Extremely high levels of situational anxiety were revealed in 15% of
medical workers and in 34% of educated people. It indicates that they are in the state of distress and
the need for a more detailed examination to identify possible borderline mental pathology with the
organization of psychological and psychotherapeutic support.