Evaluation of Mental Health Status and Related Factors Among Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation Physicians During the Covid-19 Pandemic

In December 2019, a highly infectious disease caused by a novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) emerged in Wuhan, China. On March 11th 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared COVID-19 a pandemic. Facing this critical situation, health care workers on the front line are at risk of developing psychological distress and other mental health symptoms. Physical medicine and rehabilitation (PM&R) physicians works both in specialty outpateint/inpatient clinic and pandemic outpatient/inpatient clinics during the outbreak. Accordingly, PM&R physicians are expected to be mentally affected by COVID-19 pandemic. In this study we aimed to evaluate mental health status of PM&R physicians and related factors during COVID-19 pandemic. This study is a cross-sectional survey which is conducted on an online platform. Demographic data, working conditions of PM&R physicians and factors that may be related to mental health status is questioned in the survey. The Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale - 21 (DASS-21) is used to measure the emotional states of depression, anxiety and stress.The Insomnia Severity Index (ISI) is used to assess the severity of both nighttime and daytime components of insomnia.