The present study is aimed at exploring the role of loneliness in the healthcare professionals' mental health during the COVID-19 outbreak in Spain. A total of 1,421 healthcare professionals who were in contact with at least one positive COVID-19 patient participated in a cross-sectional online survey from April to June 2020. Mental health was measured with the General Health Questionnaire-12, and loneliness was assessed with the 3-item UCLA Loneliness Scale. More than 80% of participants showed a certain prone to experience mental health problems, and 90% felt that they had not enough workplace protective measures to manage COVID-19 patients. Presence of loneliness was positively related to higher mental health problems after controlling for other covariates. Other factors related to higher mental health problems were a higher COVID-19 risk perception, being in quarantine, checking COVID-19-related news several times a day and having a lower training on managing infectious diseases. Neither living alone, nor supervisor social support, were related to healthcare professionals' mental health. Results suggest that the impact of COVID-19 in terms of mental health in the healthcare professionals could be more related to subjective appraisals of social isolation rather than to be physically alone. There were also a variety of cognitive, behavioural and training-related factors that were associated with the healthcare professionals' mental health, and that should be potentially managed in the mental healthcare interventions.
Keywords: COVID-19; healthcare professionals; loneliness; mental health.
© 2020 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.