Abstract
BACKGROUND: There are many working factors to do with depression. OBJECTIVE: To determine the association between the exposure to COVID-19 and depression in physicians and nurses from the four hospitals at "Centro Médico Nacional Siglo XXI" (CMN SXXI) took part in: Oncology, Specialties, Cardiology and Pediatrics. MATERIAL AND METHODS: A cross-sectional study of 856 participants took place in January 2022, excluding workers, such as physicians and nurses from the CMN SXXI, disabled workers, staff with a union agreement, support staff and/or staff with less than one year of work labour. Through a self-administered questionnaire, the degree of occupational exposure to patients care with COVID-19, a history of COVID-19 infection, and the patient's health quiz were asked (PHQ-9). The analysis included simple frequency measurements, odds ratio (OR), Chi squared and multiple logistics regression with p ≤ 0.05. RESULTS: The prevalence of depression in the medical and nursing staff at CMN SXXI was 32.2% (moderate to severe degree); In the multiple regression, an association was identified with not identifying support by the Institute (OR: 1.60, CI95%: 1.08-2.39, p = 0.02), high occupational exposure (OR: 8.35, CI95%: 3.02-23.09, p ˂ 0.0001), and more than 5 working days a week serving the COVID-19 patients (OR: 2.51, CI95%: 1.35-4.49, p = 0.004) and as a protective factor the fact that they have never had the COVID-19 (OR: 0.61, CI95%: 0.43-0.86, p = 0.01). CONCLUSIONS: The prevalence of depression was higher than expected being associated with the degree of occupational exposure in the COVID-19 patients´ assistance.