GLOBAL PSYCHIATRY

Background:  The COVID-19 pandemic has devastatingly affected the entire world and destroyed the equilibrium of every sphere of life. Like other groups of people, medical students of Nepal have been facing the conditions of lockdown and social isolation that have arisen because of the pandemic.
Objective: We aimed to see the relationship of perceived isolation and resilience with self-rated mental health among undergraduate medical students in Nepal.
Materials and methods: A web-based online survey was carried out in July 2020 using a semi-structured questionnaire in Google form. Data analysis was performed in SPSS vs 20. Ordered logistic regression analysis was performed to examine the effects of perceived isolation, resilience and background characteristics on self-rated mental health.
Results: Out of 515 participants, 44.9% were male.31.4% reported having fair/poor mental health status and 21.9% reported feeling stressed often due to the COVID-19 pandemic. An increment of 1SD in perceived isolation is associated with about a 5% reduction in the odds of having better mental health (exp (−0.048) = 0.95; p=0.026). Similarly, an increment of 1SD in resilience is associated with about 13% lower odds of having better mental health (exp (−0.149) = 0.862 ; p<0.001).
Conclusion: This study is an early step towards the assessment of perceived isolation and mental health among undergraduate medical students amid the COVID-19 pandemic in Nepal. There is a need to conduct regular counselling sessions and strengthen the coping skills of medical students duringthe pandemic.

Background: Stigma towards the patient of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has been reported in various media reports, including negative behaviour among health care workers (HCWs) towards COVID-19 patients. Moreover, the negative behaviour of HCWs towards COVID-19 patients could affect the professional quality of life of these HCWs.
Objective: We aimed to assess stigma related to COVID-19 patients among HCWs and explore its impact on their professional quality of life during COVID-19 pandemic in Nepal.
Methods: An online cross-sectional study was carried out among 421 HCWs (health assistants 35.6%, nurses 33%, doctors 23.3% and paramedics 8.1%), 52.7% female, working in health facilities in Nepal. The measures included background characteristics, stigma in terms of - discrimination towards COVID-19 patients, acceptance of COVID-19 patients and fear of COVID-19, and professional quality of life in terms of - work satisfaction, burnout and fatigue. Descriptive and inferential statistics were utilised to analyze the data in SPSSvs20.
Results: While around two-third of the study participants showed discriminating attitude towards COVID-19, a half showed negative attitude towards acceptance of COVID-19 patients, and a fifth reported attitude of fear of COVID-19.
Multivariable regression analysis indicated that while presence of fear of COVID-19 was associated with low satisfaction, low burnout, and low fatigue; attitude of acceptance of COVID-19 patients was associated with low burnout and low fatigue; and attitude of discrimination towards COVID-19 patients was associated with only low satisfaction.
Conclusion: Strategies directed towards - reducing fear and discrimination towards COVID-19 patients, and enhancing positive attitude of acceptance towards COVID-19 patients among HCWs, and thus, creating enabling environment for reducing their burnout and fatigue, and increasing work satisfaction are recommended.