IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v18y2021i21p11410-d668453.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Occupational Health of Frontline Healthcare Workers in the United Arab Emirates during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Snapshot of Summer 2020

Author

Listed:
  • Suad Ajab

    (Institute of Public Health, College of Medicine and Health Sciences, United Arab Emirates University, Al Ain P.O. Box 17666, United Arab Emirates)

  • Balázs Ádam

    (Institute of Public Health, College of Medicine and Health Sciences, United Arab Emirates University, Al Ain P.O. Box 17666, United Arab Emirates)

  • Muna Al Hammadi

    (Tawam Hospital, Al Ain P.O. Box 17666, United Arab Emirates)

  • Najwa Al Bastaki

    (Department of Medical Education and Research, Dubai Health Authority, Dubai P.O. Box 4545, United Arab Emirates)

  • Mohamed Al Junaibi

    (Ministry of Presidential Affairs, Abu Dhabi P.O. Box 280, United Arab Emirates)

  • Abdulmajeed Al Zubaidi

    (Ministry of Presidential Affairs, Abu Dhabi P.O. Box 280, United Arab Emirates)

  • Mona Hegazi

    (Department of Family Medicine, Mediclinic City Hospital, Dubai P.O. Box 505004, United Arab Emirates)

  • Michal Grivna

    (Institute of Public Health, College of Medicine and Health Sciences, United Arab Emirates University, Al Ain P.O. Box 17666, United Arab Emirates
    Department of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, Second Faculty of Medicine, Charles University, 150 06 Prague, Czech Republic)

  • Suhail Kady

    (Ministry of Presidential Affairs, Abu Dhabi P.O. Box 280, United Arab Emirates)

  • Erik Koornneef

    (Institute of Public Health, College of Medicine and Health Sciences, United Arab Emirates University, Al Ain P.O. Box 17666, United Arab Emirates
    Ministry of Presidential Affairs, Abu Dhabi P.O. Box 280, United Arab Emirates)

  • Raquel Neves

    (Health Science Faculty, Higher College of Technology Abu Dhabi, Abu Dhabi P.O. Box 25026, United Arab Emirates)

  • António Sousa Uva

    (CHRC, Comprehensive Health Research Center, Escola Nacional de Saúde Pública, Universidade NOVA de Lisboa, 1600-560 Lisbon, Portugal)

  • Mohamud Sheek-Hussein

    (Institute of Public Health, College of Medicine and Health Sciences, United Arab Emirates University, Al Ain P.O. Box 17666, United Arab Emirates)

  • Tom Loney

    (College of Medicine, Mohammed Bin Rashid University of Medicine and Health Sciences, Dubai P.O. Box 505055, United Arab Emirates)

  • Florentino Serranheira

    (CHRC, Comprehensive Health Research Center, Escola Nacional de Saúde Pública, Universidade NOVA de Lisboa, 1600-560 Lisbon, Portugal)

  • Marília Silva Paulo

    (Institute of Public Health, College of Medicine and Health Sciences, United Arab Emirates University, Al Ain P.O. Box 17666, United Arab Emirates
    CHRC, Comprehensive Health Research Center, Nova Medical School, Universidade NOVA de Lisboa, 1169-056 Lisbon, Portugal)

Abstract

The study aim was to understand the availability of personal protective equipment (PPE) and the levels of anxiety, depression, and burnout of healthcare workers (HCWs) in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). This study was an online-based, cross-sectional survey during July and August 2020. Participants were eligible from the entire country, and 1290 agreed to participate. The majority of HCWs were females aged 30–39 years old, working as nurses, and 80% considered PPE to be available. Twelve percent of respondents tested positive for SARS-CoV-2. Half of HCWs considered themselves physically tired (52.2%), reported musculoskeletal pain or discomfort (54.2%), and perceived moderate-to-high levels of burnout on at least one of three burnout domains (52.8%). A quarter of HCWs reported anxiety (26.3%) or depression (28.1%). HCWs reporting not having musculoskeletal pain, having performed physical activity, and higher scores of available PPE reported lower scores of anxiety, depression, and burnout. UAE HCWs experienced more access to PPE and less anxiety, depression, and burnout compared with HCWs in other countries. Study findings can be used by healthcare organizations and policymakers to ensure adequate measures are implemented to maximize the health and wellbeing of HCWs during the current COVID-19 and future pandemics.

Suggested Citation

  • Suad Ajab & Balázs Ádam & Muna Al Hammadi & Najwa Al Bastaki & Mohamed Al Junaibi & Abdulmajeed Al Zubaidi & Mona Hegazi & Michal Grivna & Suhail Kady & Erik Koornneef & Raquel Neves & António Sousa U, 2021. "Occupational Health of Frontline Healthcare Workers in the United Arab Emirates during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Snapshot of Summer 2020," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(21), pages 1-15, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:18:y:2021:i:21:p:11410-:d:668453
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/21/11410/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/21/11410/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Andreea Iulia Socaciu & Razvan Ionut & Maria Barsan & Andreea Petra Ungur & Armand Gabriel Rajnoveanu, 2020. "Burnout in Gastroenterology Unit Nurses," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(9), pages 1-10, April.
    2. Graziella Orrù & Francesca Marzetti & Ciro Conversano & Guido Vagheggini & Mario Miccoli & Rebecca Ciacchini & Eugenia Panait & Angelo Gemignani, 2021. "Secondary Traumatic Stress and Burnout in Healthcare Workers during COVID-19 Outbreak," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(1), pages 1-13, January.
    3. Alexandros Leontitsis & Abiola Senok & Alawi Alsheikh-Ali & Younus Al Nasser & Tom Loney & Aamena Alshamsi, 2021. "SEAHIR: A Specialized Compartmental Model for COVID-19," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(5), pages 1-11, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Jennifer E. Moreno-Jiménez & Luis Manuel Blanco-Donoso & Evangelia Demerouti & Sylvia Belda Hofheinz & Mario Chico-Fernández & Bernardo Moreno-Jiménez & Eva Garrosa, 2021. "The Role of Healthcare Professionals’ Passion in Predicting Secondary Traumatic Stress and Posttraumatic Growth in the Face of COVID-19: A Longitudinal Approach," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(9), pages 1-16, April.
    2. Wang Xiang & Li Chen & Qunjie Peng & Bing Wang & Xiaobing Liu, 2022. "How Effective Is a Traffic Control Policy in Blocking the Spread of COVID-19? A Case Study of Changsha, China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(13), pages 1-17, June.
    3. Victoria Chebotaeva & Paula A. Vasquez, 2023. "Erlang-Distributed SEIR Epidemic Models with Cross-Diffusion," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 11(9), pages 1-18, May.
    4. Yaming Zhang & Jiaqi Zhang & Yaya Hamadou Koura & Changyuan Feng & Yanyuan Su & Wenjie Song & Linghao Kong, 2023. "Multiple Concurrent Causal Relationships and Multiple Governance Pathways for Non-Pharmaceutical Intervention Policies in Pandemics: A Fuzzy Set Qualitative Comparative Analysis Based on 102 Countries," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(2), pages 1-16, January.
    5. Joseph Pateras & Ashwin Vaidya & Preetam Ghosh, 2022. "Network Thermodynamics-Based Scalable Compartmental Model for Multi-Strain Epidemics," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 10(19), pages 1-19, September.
    6. Eleonora Gambaro & Carla Gramaglia & Debora Marangon & Manuela Probo & Marco Rudoni & Patrizia Zeppegno, 2023. "Health Workers’ Burnout and COVID-19 Pandemic: 1-Year after—Results from a Repeated Cross-Sectional Survey," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(12), pages 1-22, June.
    7. Shimaa A. Elghazally & Atef F. Alkarn & Hussein Elkhayat & Ahmed K. Ibrahim & Mariam Roshdy Elkhayat, 2021. "Burnout Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on Health-Care Professionals at Assiut University Hospitals, 2020," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(10), pages 1-12, May.
    8. Lena Serafin & Aleksandra Kusiak & Bożena Czarkowska-Pączek, 2022. "The COVID-19 Pandemic Increased Burnout and Bullying among Newly Graduated Nurses but Did Not Impact the Relationship between Burnout and Bullying and Self-Labelled Subjective Feeling of Being Bullied," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(3), pages 1-12, February.
    9. Derek Huang & Huanyu Tao & Qilong Wu & Sheng-You Huang & Yi Xiao, 2021. "Modeling of the Long-Term Epidemic Dynamics of COVID-19 in the United States," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(14), pages 1-17, July.
    10. Romana Ulbrichtova & Viera Svihrova & Maria Tatarkova & Jan Svihra & Martin Novak & Henrieta Hudeckova, 2022. "Prevalence of Burnout Syndrome in COVID-19 and Non-COVID-19 Units in University Hospital: A Cross-Sectional Study," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(19), pages 1-9, October.
    11. Ilaria Buonomo & Paolo Emilio Santoro & Paula Benevene & Ivan Borrelli & Giacomo Angelini & Caterina Fiorilli & Maria Rosaria Gualano & Umberto Moscato, 2022. "Buffering the Effects of Burnout on Healthcare Professionals’ Health—The Mediating Role of Compassionate Relationships at Work in the COVID Era," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(15), pages 1-15, July.
    12. Souad Hassanie & Olusegun A. Olugbade & Georgiana Karadas & Özlem Altun, 2022. "The Impact of Workload on Workers’ Traumatic Stress and Mental Health Mediated by Career Adaptability during COVID-19," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(19), pages 1-18, September.
    13. Lorenza Lia & Eleonora Ricci & Corrado Colaprico & Eleonora Di Legge & Augusto Faticoni & Lorenzo Maria Donini & Giuseppe La Torre, 2022. "Assessment of the Impact of COVID-19 Lockdown on the Nutritional Status and Lipid Profile of Employees in a Teaching Hospital in Rome: A Retrospective Cohort Study," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(8), pages 1-12, April.
    14. Paula Franklin & Anna Gkiouleka, 2021. "A Scoping Review of Psychosocial Risks to Health Workers during the Covid-19 Pandemic," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(5), pages 1-20, March.
    15. Veronika Pacutova & Andrea Madarasova Geckova & Peter Kizek & Andrea F. de Winter & Sijmen A. Reijneveld, 2021. "The Impact of Pandemic Management on the Quality of Life of Slovak Dentists," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(10), pages 1-9, May.
    16. Mariagrazia Di Giuseppe & Graziella Orrù & Angelo Gemignani & Rebecca Ciacchini & Mario Miniati & Ciro Conversano, 2022. "Mindfulness and Defense Mechanisms as Explicit and Implicit Emotion Regulation Strategies against Psychological Distress during Massive Catastrophic Events," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(19), pages 1-10, October.
    17. Jose Miguel Giménez Lozano & Juan Pedro Martínez Ramón & Francisco Manuel Morales Rodríguez, 2021. "Doctors and Nurses: A Systematic Review of the Risk and Protective Factors in Workplace Violence and Burnout," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(6), pages 1-19, March.
    18. Annabel Rushforth & Mia Durk & Gabby A. A. Rothwell-Blake & Ann Kirkman & Fiona Ng & Yasuhiro Kotera, 2023. "Self-Compassion Interventions to Target Secondary Traumatic Stress in Healthcare Workers: A Systematic Review," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(12), pages 1-14, June.
    19. João Leitão & Dina Pereira & Ângela Gonçalves, 2021. "Quality of Work Life and Contribution to Productivity: Assessing the Moderator Effects of Burnout Syndrome," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(5), pages 1-20, March.
    20. Øverby, Harald & Audestad, Jan A. & Szalkowski, Gabriel Andy, 2023. "Compartmental market models in the digital economy—extension of the Bass model to complex economic systems," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 47(1).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:18:y:2021:i:21:p:11410-:d:668453. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.