Perceptions of COVID-19 during and after the Omicron outbreak among healthcare personnel in Indonesia

Mohammad Ainul Maruf; Yi-Hao Weng; Ya-Wen Chiu; Hung-Yi Chiou

doi:10.3389/fpubh.2023.1321045

Perceptions of COVID-19 during and after the Omicron outbreak among healthcare personnel in Indonesia

Front Public Health. 2024 Jan 8:11:1321045. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2023.1321045. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Mohammad Ainul Maruf^{1

2}, Yi-Hao Weng³, Ya-Wen Chiu^{4

5

6}, Hung-Yi Chiou^{1

7}

Affiliations

¹ Ph.D. Program in Global Health and Health Security, College of Public Health, Taipei Medical University, Taipei, Taiwan.
² Faculty of Public Health, Universitas Muhammadiyah Jakarta, Jakarta, Indonesia.
³ Department of Pediatrics, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Chang Gung University College of Medicine, Taipei, Taiwan.
⁴ Department of Public Health, College of Health Sciences, Kaohsiung Medical University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan.
⁵ Research Center for Global Health and Security, Kaohsiung Medical University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan.
⁶ Department of Medical Research, Kaohsiung Medical University Hospital, Kaohsiung, Taiwan.
⁷ Institute of Population Health Sciences, National Health Research Institutes, Miaoli, Taiwan.

Abstract

Introduction: The COVID-19 pandemic occurred in several waves with different levels of seriousness. Healthcare personnel (HCP) constituted a high-risk population for COVID-19, necessitating monitoring of their knowledge, attitudes, and practices (KAP) status and level of psychological distress. This study investigated differences in the impacts of COVID-19 during and after the Omicron outbreak among HCP in Indonesia.

Methods: An online structured questionnaire survey was distributed twice in selected hospitals of Indonesia: the first survey was between December 2021 and February 2022 (Omicron era) and the second between August and October 2022 (post-Omicron era). A multiple logistic regression model was used to determine the differences in KAP and psychological distress among HCP toward COVID-19 with demographic characteristics adjusted for.

Results: This study included 402 (Omicron era) and 584 (post-Omicron era) HCP members. Positive attitudes were more common in the Omicron era than in the post-Omicron era (p = 0.001). The availability of face shields and protective eyewear significantly decreased from 62.7 to 55.6% (p = 0.028). However, psychological distress among HCP significantly increased after the Omicron outbreak (p = 0.024). Multiple logistic regression analyses revealed a decrease of positive attitudes (OR = 0.626; 95% CI = 0.476-0.823) in the post-Omicron era.

Conclusion: Our data indicated a significant increase in psychological distress among HCP in the post-Omicron era. These findings suggest a need for greater focus on psychological distress among HCP in Indonesia.

Keywords: COVID-19; Indonesia; attitudes; healthcare personnel; knowledge; practices; psychological distress.

MeSH terms

COVID-19* / epidemiology
Delivery of Health Care
Disease Outbreaks
Humans
Indonesia / epidemiology
Pandemics

Grants and funding

The author(s) declare financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. This work was supported by research grants from the Chang Gung Memorial Hospital (CMRPG1J0112), the Taiwanese Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST 110-2635-B-037-003, 111-2314-B-038-048, and 111-2314-B-182A-020), and University of Muhammadiyah Jakarta (324/R-UMJ/VI/2022).