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Health Workers’ Mental Health
Health workers in the United States “continued to face a mental health crisis in 2022,” according to CDC’s analysis of data from the Quality of Worklife module of the nationally representative General Social Survey. An agency report published in October found that health workers reported a larger increase in the number of days of poor mental health and burnout in 2022 compared with 2018 than did essential and other workers. Researchers from CDC and NIOSH also examined how workers’ perceptions of working conditions affected survey respondents’ odds of reporting anxiety, depression, and burnout. Information from the report appears below.
From “Vital Signs: Health Worker-Perceived Working Conditions and Symptoms of Poor Mental Health—Quality of Worklife Survey, United States, 2018–2022”:
“This study provides evidence that during the COVID-19 pandemic, U.S. health workers experienced larger declines in a range of mental health outcomes than did essential and other workers, with the exception of general happiness, which was lower in essential workers. These data support the imperative for action to create a system in which health workers
can thrive.”
SOURCE
CDC: Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, “Vital Signs: Health Worker-Perceived Working Conditions and Symptoms of Poor Mental Health—Quality of Worklife Survey, United States, 2018–2022” (October 2023).
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