ECE2022 Eposter Presentations General Endocrinology (15 abstracts)
Comparison of perceived sufficiency of information, sources of information, worries about the pandemic and psychological distress between endocrinology patients and staff at the outpatient department of the university hospital, heraklion, crete greece: preliminary results of the EPITOME study
Vasiliki Daraki 1 , Panagiotis- Nikolaos Tsakalomatis 1 , Theano Roumeliotaki 2 , Grigoria Betsi 1 , Maria Chrysoulaki 1 , Maria Sfakiotaki 1 , Eleni- Konstantina Syntzanaki 1 , Vasiliki Venetsanaki 1 , Rodanthi Vamvoukaki 1 , Kalliopi Kontolaimaki 1 , Kyriakos Nicolaou 1 , George Mavrakis 1 , Polyxeni Anomerianaki 1 , Katerina Bouki 1 , Panagiota Goulia 3 & Paraskevi Xekouki 1
1University General Hospital of Heraklion, Endocrinology & Diabetes Clinic, Heraklion, Greece; 2University of Crete School of Medicine, Department of Social Medicine, Heraklion, Greece; 3Fulbourn Hospital, Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation, Cambridge, United Kingdom
Background: Psychological distress is elevated during pandemics such as the COVID-19 outbreak both in health care professionals and patients.
Aim: To compare worries about the COVID-19 pandemic, need and sources of information, and psychological distress between endocrinology patients and staff at an outpatient department of the University Hospital, Heraklion, Crete, Greece
Methods: One hundred and four patients and sixty members of staff completed questionnaires about demographics, need for information, sources of information, worries about the COVID-19 pandemic and the Greek version of the DASS-21 for psychological distress. Ethical approval was obtained by Institutional Review Board and all participants provided informed consent.
Results: Mean age of staff was 41.2 years and patients 50.6 years (<0.001), with predominance of women in both groups. The majority of both groups stated that they worried about the pandemic reporting a moderate degree of worry. Main worry was the risk of contagion and infection of their family, and this was more prevalent for staff (P=0.036). Regarding the need for information on a 5-item Likert scale (1: prefer having no more information than needed; 5: prefer as much information as possible) both groups reported moderate degrees of information needs. Regarding specific aspects of COVID-19 infection, staff was better informed about symptoms, prognosis, infection route, preventive measures (p, 0.001, 0.032, 0.001, 0.047 respectively) with no differences about information on treatment and the COVID-19 vaccine, compared to patients. Both groups preferred formal sources of information. Staff relayed mainly on information by health professionals (P=0.006) whilst patients showed an additional preference for informal sources (P=0.022). There were no differences in stress and anxiety symptoms between the two groups, which showed low rates of both; few participants displayed moderate/high symptoms of depression, and these were mostly in the staff group (P=0.040).
Conclusions: The current study highlights differences between endocrine patients and staff regarding their main worry about the pandemic with staff being more worried about the safety of family/relatives likely due to their higher chance of exposure. Although both groups were informed by formal sources, staff was more informed on most aspects of COVID-19, but this did not include treatment and the COVID-19 vaccine, perhaps due to the scarcity of studies. Among participants, staff reported more often moderate/severe symptoms of depression. These results are relevant when designing policies on information on pandemics and supportive measures for patients and staff in General Hospitals.
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Endocrine Abstracts
ISSN 1470-3947 (print) | ISSN 1479-6848 (online)
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