Meghan E Meredith, Lauren N Steimle, Stephanie M Radke
The implications of using maternity care deserts to measure progress in access to obstetric care: a mixed-integer optimization analysis
BMC health services research
coronavirus 19 covid19 created complex pressures challenges healthcare systems worldwide however little known impacts covid19 regionalrural healthcare workers loddon mallee healthcare worker covid19 study lmhcwcs cohort established explore describe immediate longterm impacts covid19 pandemic regional rural healthcare workers eligible healthcare workers employed within 23 different healthcare organisations located loddon mallee region victoria australia included cohort study total 1313 participants recruited november 2020may 2021 symptoms depression anxiety posttraumatic stress burnout measured using patient health questionnaire9 phq9 generalised anxiety disorder7 gad7 impact events scale6 ies6 copenhagen burnout inventory cbi respectively resilience optimism measured using brief resilience scale life orientation testrevised lotr respectively subjective fear covid19 measured using fear covid19 scale crosssectional baseline findings demonstrate regionalrural healthcare workers experiencing moderatesevere depressive symptoms n 211 161 moderate severe anxiety symptoms n 193 147 high personal patientclient burnout median total scores 464 iqr 286 250 iqr 292 respectively moderate degree covid19related fear however participants demonstrated normalhigh degree resilience n 854 650 based selfreporting 154 bmi 185 249 kgm2 370 bmi 25 kgm2 overall 73 participants reported current smokers 206 reported alcohol consumption considered moderatehighrisk drinking 212 sample reported consuming four serves vegetables daily 378 reported consuming two serves fruit daily 480 sample reported poor sleep quality measured using pittsburgh sleep quality index psqi regionalrural healthcare workers victoria australia experiencing moderate high degree psychological distress early stages pandemic however participants demonstrated normalhigh degree resilience findings used inform policy options support healthcare workers responding future pandemics