Pandemic management increases the burden on healthcare workers to provide care and also affects their personal lives, with dentists being at particular risk. Therefore, we aim to describe the quality of life (QoL) and limitations experienced due to pandemic management-related measures (PanMan), as well as to assess the association of PanMan with QoL during the first lockdown after the coronavirus outbreak. We obtained data from 500 dentists (33.2% males, M/SD = 43.8) registered with the Slovak Chamber of Dentists using an online questionnaire. We categorized PanMan as the availability of personal protective equipment (PPE) and the ability to implement anti-pandemic measures, information overload, pandemic-related limitations and QoL in terms of their impact on family life and activities, housekeeping, relationships with relatives, financial situation and mental well-being. PanMan mainly affected financial situation, mental well-being and housekeeping. Factors contributing most towards the worsening of QoL were information overload (odds ratio/95% confidence interval, OR/CI: 5.79/2.64-12.71) and several pandemic-related limitations. These consisted of (OR/CI): a lack of PPE (5.17/2.48-10.77), infection risks in the work environment (3.06/1.57-5.95), obligatory safety measures (3.02/1.47-6.21), lack of staff (2.85/1.30-6.25) and client concerns (3.56/1.70-7.49). Pandemic management has led to a considerable worsening of dentists' QoL.
Keywords: COVID-19; dentists; healthcare workers; pandemic management; quality of life.