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BMC Psychiatry
Published in: BMC Psychiatry 1/2020

01-12-2020 | Coronavirus | Research article

Psychological distress among Iranian health-care providers exposed to coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19): a qualitative study

Authors: Azizeh Alizadeh, Hamid Reza Khankeh, Mohammad Barati, Yazdan Ahmadi, Arash Hadian, Maryam Azizi

Published in: BMC Psychiatry | Issue 1/2020

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Abstract

Background

Novel corona virus, named COVID-19, has spread rapidly to other countries like Italy, Iran and South Korea and affected all people, especially health-care providers. Therefore, due to the rapid spread of the disease in Iran, the aim of the present study was to explore psychological distress experienced by Iranian health-care providers in the first few weeks of the corona virus outbreak.

Methods

The present qualitative study was conducted on 18 Iranian health-care providers exposed to COVID − 19 using a content analysis method. Purposeful sampling was used to select the participants and continued until data saturation was reached. Data were collected using semi-structured interviews and then the qualitative data were analyzed through direct content analysis.

Results

By analyzing 236 primary codes, two main categories were extracted from the experiences of health-care providers during corona virus outbreak. The first category included Occupational demands with three sub-categories: nature of illness, Organizational demands and social demands. The second category was Supportive resources included personal support and social support.

Conclusions

The results of this study found that there were some barriers and challenges to medical personnel exposed to COVID-19 that caused psychological distress. Some of these problems related to the nature of illness, others related to social and organizational demands and some of supportive resources buffer the relationship between occupational demands and psychological distress.
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Metadata
Title
Psychological distress among Iranian health-care providers exposed to coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19): a qualitative study
Authors
Azizeh Alizadeh
Hamid Reza Khankeh
Mohammad Barati
Yazdan Ahmadi
Arash Hadian
Maryam Azizi
Publication date
01-12-2020
Publisher
BioMed Central
Published in
BMC Psychiatry / Issue 1/2020
Electronic ISSN: 1471-244X
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1186/s12888-020-02889-2

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