RESEARCH ARTICLE Mental health consequences of COVID-19 in house staff physicians [version 1; peer review: awaiting peer review] Edward Espinosa-Guerra 1,2 , Edgar Rodríguez-Barría 3,4 , Christl Donnelly 5,6 , Jean-Paul Carrera 7,8 1 Public Health and Preventive Medicine, Residency Program, Complejo Hospitalario Dr. Arnulfo Arias Madrid, Panama City, Panama 2 School of Public Health, University of Panama, Panama City, Panama 3 Department of Psychiatry, Residency Program, Complejo Hospitalario Dr. Arnulfo Arias Madrid, Panama City, Panama 4 Sistema Nacional de Investigación (SNI), Secretaría Nacional de Ciencia, Tecnología e Innovación (SENACYT), Panama City, Panama 5 Department of Infectious Disease Epidemiology, MRC, Centre for Global Infectious Disease Analysis (MRC-GIDA), Imperial College London, London, UK 6 Department of Statistics, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK 7 Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK 8 Department of Virology and Biotechnology, Gorgas Memorial Institute of Health Studies, Panama City, Panama First published: 11 Mar 2022, 11:303 https://doi.org/10.12688/f1000research.74191.1 Latest published: 11 Mar 2022, 11:303 https://doi.org/10.12688/f1000research.74191.1 v1 Abstract Background: A new coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, was associated with a newly identified respiratory syndrome, COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in early December 2019. SARS-CoV-2 rapidly spread across the globe, imposing increased working hours and workloads for healthcare workers. We have evaluated the prevalence of mental health outcomes and associated factors in house staff physicians in Panama. Methods: A cross-sectional study was undertaken from July 23, 2020, to August 13, 2020. Snowball sampling was used to recruit participants. Then, an electronic questionnaire with scales to evaluate anxiety disorders (GAD-7), depression (PHQ-9) and post-traumatic stress (IES-R) was administered. In addition, socio-demographic variables, clinical history of mental disorders and COVID-19 exposure were evaluated. Independent analyses for each mental health outcome were undertaken using a logistic regression analysis. Results: A total of 517/1,205 (42.9%) interns and residents were recruited nationwide. The overall prevalence of depression symptoms was 25.3%, 13.7% for anxiety and 12.2% for post-traumatic stress. At least 9.3% participants reported having suicidal ideation. The most parsimonious model showed females had a higher prevalence of mental health disorders across results, and married participants were more likely to present depression (OR, 1.73; 95% CI, 1.03-2.91; P = 0.039) or at least one mental health disorder (OR, 1.66; 95% CI, 1.03- 2.68; P = 0.039). Conclusions: A high prevalence of mental health disorders was found, showing the need to mitigate this emotional burden among healthcare workers in the current context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Open Peer Review Approval Status AWAITING PEER REVIEW Any reports and responses or comments on the article can be found at the end of the article. Page 1 of 13 F1000Research 2022, 11:303 Last updated: 11 MAR 2022