Abstract

Background and Aims:
Healthcare workers are increasingly experiencing high levels of stress, anxiety, and depression, which could impact their overall health and productivity at work. This study examined the prevalence of perceived stress, anxiety, and depression among healthcare workers at the Federal Medical Centre (FMC), Abeokuta, Nigeria. It also examined the relationships between these mental health problems and the associated factors.

Methods:
318 healthcare workers participated in a cross-sectional survey by answering validated, self-administered questions. To ascertain prevalence rates of the mental health problems and their associated factors among healthcare workers. The standardized psychological assessment instruments of the perceived stress scale (PSS), the Beck anxiety inventory (BAI), and the Beck depression inventory (BDI) for measuring perceived stress, anxiety, and depression were employed. The data were then analyzed using SPSS 25.

Results:
The study found that 55% of participants experienced high levels of perceived stress, 52.2% reported severe anxiety, and 57.5% reported severe depression. Chi-square test showed significant associations were observed between perceived stress and job title with p-value=0.001, anxiety with job title (p-value=0.001), department (p-value=0.001), and years of experience (p-value=0.043). Depression showed significant association with job title (p-value=0.001), and department (p-value=0.001).

Conclusion:
Targeted mental health interventions are needed, as evidenced from the outcomes of this study showing higher frequency of perceived stress score, anxiety score, and depression score among healthcare workers. These mental health outcomes are strongly influenced by sociodemographic and occupational characteristics, including department, years of experience, and job title.

Key words: Perceived stress, anxiety, depression, healthcare workers, socio-demographic factors, occupational factors