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Volume 21, Number 5—May 2015
Letter

Ebola and Psychological Stress of Health Care Professionals

Marco Lehmann1Comments to Author , Christian A. Bruenahl1, Bernd Löwe, Marylyn M. Addo, Stefan Schmiedel, Ansgar W. Lohse, and Christoph Schramm
Author affiliations: University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany (M. Lehmann, C.A. Bruenahl, B. Löwe, M.M. Addo, S. Schmiedel, A.W. Lohse, C. Schramm); Schön Klinik Hamburg-Eilbek, Hamburg (M. Lehmann, C.A. Bruenahl, B. Löwe); German Center for Infection Research, Hamburg-Lübeck-Borstel, Germany (M.M. Addo)

Main Article

Table

Demographic characteristics, self-reported symptoms, and evaluation of working conditions of health care professionals with and without direct contact with an Ebola patient, Germany, 2014*

Characteristic Health professionals
 Group differences
With direct 
patient contact, n = 30† Without direct patient contact, n = 40‡ t-value or odds ratio§ p value
Demographic
Mean (SD) age, y 38 (8.3) 35 (9.9) 1.10 0.29
Male sex, no. (%) 16 (55) 12 (30) 0.35 0.05
Living with partner, no (%) 22 (76) 22 (55) 0.39 0.08
Occupation, no. (%)
Physician 9 (31) 11 (28) 0.89 1.00
Nurse
 19 (66)
 26 (65)
Self-report scale, mean (SD)¶
Somatic symptom severity, SSS-8 5.03 (3.4) 4.74 (4.9) 0.30 0.77
Anxiety severity, GAD-7 2.43 (2.7) 2.41 (2.0) 0.03 0.98
Depression severity, PHQ-9 3.52 (3.3) 3.38 (3.0) 0.18 0.86
Fatigue symptoms, Facit 12.88 (9.1) 13.32 (8.1) −0.20 0.84
Social isolation
 0.62 (0.9)
 0.00 (0.0)
3.70
 <0.001
Evaluation of working conditions, no. (%)
Had confidence in health care facilities 29 (97) 26 (93) 2.20 0.61
Desired psychological preparation 7 (26) 16 (52) 0.33 0.06
Desired shorter shift durations 16 (70) 5 (28) 5.70 0.01
Experienced treatment with Ebola patient as an exceptional circumstance 22 (85) 18 (64) 2.99 0.12

*Facit, Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness Therapy; GAD-7, Generalized Anxiety Disorder Scale-7; PHQ-9, Patient Health Questionnaire-9; SSS-8, Somatic Symptom Scale-8.
†Because of missing values, no. patients varied between 26 and 30.
‡Because of missing values, no. patients varied between 37 and 40.
§t-values (and corresponding p values) for continuous data and odds ratios (and corresponding p values) for categorical data.
¶Mean (SD) of total scores. Higher means indicate more severe symptoms.

Main Article

1These authors contributed equally to this article.

Page created: April 18, 2015
Page updated: April 18, 2015
Page reviewed: April 18, 2015
The conclusions, findings, and opinions expressed by authors contributing to this journal do not necessarily reflect the official position of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the Public Health Service, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, or the authors' affiliated institutions. Use of trade names is for identification only and does not imply endorsement by any of the groups named above.
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