Differences in the presentation of COVID-19-related psychosocial stress and general psychological distress and the relation between the number of care days and these symptoms among Japanese ward staff working exclusively with COVID-19 and support staff

Table 1 Participant characteristics

Variables	Group A medical staff (n = 21)	Group B medical staff (n = 46)	Statistics	p-value
Sex			0.25	0.62
Male (n = 22, 32.8%)	6 (28.6%)	16 (34.8%)
Female (n = 45, 67.2%)	15 (71.4%)	30 (65.2%)
Age (mean ± SD)	37.8 ± 10.7	37.1 ± 9.3	477.5	0.94
Occupation			0.04	0.84
Nurse (50, 74.6%)	16 (76.2%)	34 (73.9%)
Doctor (17, 25.4%)	5 (23.8%)	12 (26.1%)
Length of service
Working as HCW (months)	167.9 ± 134.7	171.3 ± 148.7	452.0	0.68
Care for COVID-19 (days)	233.0 ± 68.3	47.0 ± 30.2	26.5	< 0.01 ^**
Previous medical history			3.8	0.05
Nothing (54, 80.6%)	14 (66.7%)	40 (85.1%)
Any one of histories (13, 19.4%)^a	7 (33.3%)	6 (13.0%)
Living alone (23, 34.3%)	6 (28.6%)	17 (37.0%)	0.45	0.50

The statistics data are shown as χ2 [2] value and significance levels (^* p < 0.05, ^** p < 0.01)
^aMedical history: a psychiatric history was reported by 2 participants in group A (9.5%); insomnia was reported by 4 participants in group A (19.0%) and 2 in group B (4.3%); and other physical symptoms were reported by 2 participants in group A (9.5%) and 1 in group B (2.2%) (multiple responses allowed)
Group A worked exclusively in Covid-19 wards and Group B temporarily
Data are presented as mean ± standard deviation or n (%)
Chi-square analysis was used to test differences in categorical variables, and the Mann–Whitney test was used to test for differences in continuous values

ISSN: 1751-0759