An Acute Stress Scale for Health Care Professionals Caring for Patients With COVID-19 : Validation Study

©Jose Joaquin Mira, Angel Cobos, Olga Martínez García, María José Bueno Domínguez, María Pilar Astier-Peña, Pastora Pérez Pérez, Irene Carrillo, Mercedes Guilabert, Virtudes Perez-Jover, Cesar Fernandez, María Asuncion Vicente, Matilde Lahera-Martin, Carmen Silvestre Busto, Susana Lorenzo Martínez, Ascension Sanchez Martinez, Jimmy Martin-Delgado, Aurora Mula, Barbara Marco-Gomez, Cristina Abad Bouzan, Carlos Aibar-Remon, Jesus Aranaz-Andres, SARS-CoV-2 Second Victims Working Group. Originally published in JMIR Formative Research (http://formative.jmir.org), 09.03.2021..

BACKGROUND: The COVID-19 pandemic has affected the response capacity of the health care workforce, and health care professionals have been experiencing acute stress reactions since the beginning of the pandemic. In Spain, the first wave was particularly severe among the population and health care professionals, many of whom were infected. These professionals required initial psychological supports that were gradual and in line with their conditions.

OBJECTIVE: In the early days of the pandemic in Spain (March 2020), this study aimed to design and validate a scale to measure acute stress experienced by the health care workforce during the care of patients with COVID-19: the Self-applied Acute Stress Scale (EASE).

METHODS: Item development, scale development, and scale evaluation were considered. Qualitative research was conducted to produce the initial pool of items, assure their legibility, and assess the validity of the content. Internal consistency was calculated using Cronbach α and McDonald ω. Confirmatory factor analysis and the Mann-Whitney-Wilcoxon test were used to assess construct validity. Linear regression was applied to assess criterion validity. Back-translation methodology was used to translate the scale into Portuguese and English.

RESULTS: A total of 228 health professionals from the Spanish public health system responded to the 10 items of the EASE scale. Internal consistency was .87 (McDonald ω). Goodness-of-fit indices confirmed a two-factor structure, explaining 55% of the variance. As expected, the highest level of stress was found among professionals working in health services where a higher number of deaths from COVID-19 occurred (P<.05).

CONCLUSIONS: The EASE scale was shown to have adequate metric properties regarding consistency and construct validity. The EASE scale could be used to determine the levels of acute stress among the health care workforce in order to give them proportional support according to their needs during emergency conditions, such as the COVID-19 pandemic.

Medienart:

E-Artikel

Erscheinungsjahr:

2021

Erschienen:

2021

Enthalten in:

Zur Gesamtaufnahme - volume:5

Enthalten in:

JMIR formative research - 5(2021), 3 vom: 09. März, Seite e27107

Sprache:

Englisch

Beteiligte Personen:

Mira, Jose Joaquin [VerfasserIn]
Cobos, Angel [VerfasserIn]
Martínez García, Olga [VerfasserIn]
Bueno Domínguez, María José [VerfasserIn]
Astier-Peña, María Pilar [VerfasserIn]
Pérez Pérez, Pastora [VerfasserIn]
Carrillo, Irene [VerfasserIn]
Guilabert, Mercedes [VerfasserIn]
Perez-Jover, Virtudes [VerfasserIn]
Fernandez, Cesar [VerfasserIn]
Vicente, María Asuncion [VerfasserIn]
Lahera-Martin, Matilde [VerfasserIn]
Silvestre Busto, Carmen [VerfasserIn]
Lorenzo Martínez, Susana [VerfasserIn]
Sanchez Martinez, Ascension [VerfasserIn]
Martin-Delgado, Jimmy [VerfasserIn]
Mula, Aurora [VerfasserIn]
Marco-Gomez, Barbara [VerfasserIn]
Abad Bouzan, Cristina [VerfasserIn]
Aibar-Remon, Carlos [VerfasserIn]
Aranaz-Andres, Jesus [VerfasserIn]
SARS-CoV-2 Second Victims Working Group [VerfasserIn]
Lopez-Pineda, Adriana [Sonstige Person]
Burillo, Julian Vitaller [Sonstige Person]
Cuenca, Juan Francisco Herrera [Sonstige Person]
Casalengua, Maria Luisa Torrijano [Sonstige Person]
Gimenez, Antonio Guilabert [Sonstige Person]
Ruiperez, Carmen Muñoz [Sonstige Person]
Meléndez, Isabel María Galán [Sonstige Person]
Rodríguez, Carolina Varela [Sonstige Person]
Sanchís, Auxi Javaloyes [Sonstige Person]
Palazón, Inmaculada [Sonstige Person]
Lourenção, Daniela Campos de Andrade [Sonstige Person]
Guijarro, Jorge de Vicente [Sonstige Person]

Links:

Volltext

Themen:

Acute stress
COVID-19
COVID-19 outbreak
Journal Article
Medical staff
Moral injury
Posttraumatic stress
SARS-CoV-2 virus

Anmerkungen:

Date Revised 31.03.2024

published: Electronic

Citation Status PubMed-not-MEDLINE

doi:

10.2196/27107

funding:

Förderinstitution / Projekttitel:

PPN (Katalog-ID):

NLM322444993