Hall, Charlotte E;
Brooks, Samantha K;
Potts, Henry WW;
Greenberg, Neil;
Weston, Dale;
(2024)
Rates of, and factors associated with, common mental disorders in homeworking UK Government response employees’ during COVID-19: a cross-sectional survey and secondary data analysis.
BMC Psychology
, 12
, Article 429. 10.1186/s40359-024-01921-4.
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Abstract
INTRODUCTION: Working on the frontline during the COVID-19 pandemic has been associated with increased risk to mental health and wellbeing in multiple occupations and contexts. The current study aimed to provide an insight into the rate of probable mental health problems amongst United Kingdom (UK) Government employees who contributed to the COVID-19 response whilst working from home, and to ascertain what factors and constructs, if any, influence mental health and wellbeing in the sample population. METHODS: This paper reports on the findings from two studies completed by UK Government employees. Study 1: A cross-sectional online survey, containing standardised and validated measures of common mental health disorders of staff who actively contributed to the COVID-19 response from their own homes. Binary logistic regression was used to assess factors associated with mental health outcomes. Study 2: A secondary data analysis of cross-sectional survey data collected across three timepoints (May, June, and August) in 2020 focusing on the wellbeing of employees who worked from home during the COVID-19 pandemic. RESULTS: Study 1: 17.9% of participants met the threshold criteria for a probable moderate anxiety disorder, moderate depression, or post-traumatic stress disorder. Younger, less resilient, less productive individuals, with lower personal wellbeing and less enjoyment of working from home, were more likely to present with poorer mental health. Study 2: Found lower wellbeing was consistently associated with having less opportunities to look after one’s physical and mental health, and having unsupportive line managers and colleagues. CONCLUSIONS: It is important to ensure UK Government employees’ psychological needs are met whilst working from home and responding to enhanced incidents. It is recommended that workplaces should be seeking to continually build and improve employee resilience (e.g., through opportunities to increase social ties and support networks), essentially ensuring employees have necessary resources and skills to support themselves and others.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Rates of, and factors associated with, common mental disorders in homeworking UK Government response employees’ during COVID-19: a cross-sectional survey and secondary data analysis |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1186/s40359-024-01921-4 |
| Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.1186/s40359-024-01921-4 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Population Health Sciences > Institute of Health Informatics UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Population Health Sciences > Institute of Health Informatics > CHIME |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10195604 |
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