Quality of life of healthcare workers during the COVID-19 pandemic and associated factors

Introduction: The Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome-related Coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2), causer of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), appeared in december in China. Currently, there are more than 570 million confirmed cases and 6 million deaths from COVID-19 worldwide Faced with the severity of the disease, the demand for Health Services and hospitalizations have increased exponentially, causing a chaotic situation in the health systems of Brazil and of the world. As a result, health professionals, were exposed to the virus and were more prone to illness, causing fear, anxiety, insecurity, conditions which directly influenced the Quality of Life (QoL) of these professionals and, consequently, a low QoL influences on working conditions and such as the quality of care provided to the patient. Objective: In this sense, the goal of this study was to analyze the changes in the QoL of healthcare workers during the COVID-19 pandemic and to relate associated factors. Material and Method: This is a cross-sectional and analytical study, with a quantitative approach, developed according to an online survey. The project to which this study is linked was approved by the Research Ethics Committee of the University of São Paulo at Ribeirão Preto College of Nursing. Bivariate analysis was used and the Chi-Square test was adopted, followed by the multiple binary logistic regression model, using the stepwise method. The outcomes of improvement or worsening of QOL were associated with independent variables. The analyzes considered a significance level of 5% (α=0.05). Inclusion criteria: healthcare workers from the southeastern region of Brazil, who worked in direct care for patients affected or not by COVID-19 at least in the last six months prior to data collect. Participants who did not complete the questionnaire were excluded. Result: The study was carried out with 3943 healthcare workers. As the main finding, it was shown that among these, 78.61% reported worsening of QOL, which corresponds to 57.05% of the total study sample, of which 83.05% were female. Most participants were married or in a stable union (53.99%), were nurses (44.33%), had a religion (86.37%), provided assistance to patients with COVID-19 and the general population (44.73%), did not work in field hospitals (75.92%) and had no diagnosis of COVID-19 (76.20%) at the time of data collection. Participants who declared themselves to be black and brown and who provided assistance to the "general" public were less likely to report a worsening in QoL. On the other hand, nursing assistants who did not receive good quality personal protective equipment from the institution where they work or who received it only in part had a greater chance of declaring a worsening of QoL. Conclusion: In view of the above, it is concluded that during the COVID-19 pandemic, health professionals were exposed to various situations that harmed both the quality of work and their QOL and health. In view of this, it is important to emphasize that planning and development actions will be necessary, aiming at the recovery and integration of the teams, prevention and promotion of mental health for professionals and the elaboration of plans aimed mainly at females, since the health workforce is made up mostly of women