Background: Moral injury has been found to be prevalent among healthcare professionals during the COVID-19 public health crisis.
Aims: The present study examines the relationship between spirituality, moral injury, and mental health among physicians and nurses in mainland China during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Method: An online cross-sectional study was conducted involving 3006 physicians and nurses in mainland China, where the COVID-19 pandemic has caused high rates of hospital admission and death. The Moral Injury Symptoms Scale-Health Professional was administered, along with measures of mental health and spirituality. Hierarchical linear regression modelling was used to examine the mediating and moderating role of moral injury in the relationship between spirituality and mental health.
Results: Spirituality was positively correlated with moral injury (β = 2.41, P < 0.01), depressive symptoms (β = 0.74, P < 0.01) and anxiety symptoms (β = 0.65, P < 0.01) after controlling sociodemographic variables. Moral injury significantly mediated the relationship between spirituality and both depression and anxiety, explaining 60% (0.46/0.76) of the total association between spirituality and depression and 58% (0.38/0.65) of the association with anxiety. No moderating effect of moral injury was found on the spirituality-mental health relationship.
Conclusions: Although they were the findings of a cross-sectional study, these results suggest that concern over transgressing moral values during the pandemic may have been a driving factor for negative mental health symptoms among Chinese health professionals for whom spirituality was somewhat important. Future longitudinal studies are needed to determine the causal nature of these relationships.
Keywords: COVID-19; Moral injury; depression; healthcare professional; mediation; spirituality.