Korean J Psychosom Med.  2022 Jun;30(1):22-29. 10.22722/KJPM.2022.30.1.22.

The Effect of Stress on Anxiety and Depressed Mood and the Mediating Effect of Resilience in Medical Residents and Interns During Coronavirus Disease-19 Event

• Cho HY
• Kim SJ
• Kim JW
• Oh HS
• Im WY
• Lee NH

• KMID: 2537039
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.22722/KJPM.2022.30.1.22

Abstract

Objectives
: In this study, we evaluate psychological stress, symptoms of anxiety and depressed mood and resilience which medical residents and interns perceived during COVID-19 event, then investigate the associations between stress and the symptoms and mediating effect of resilience on the associations.
Methods
: In this study, we made a self-reporting form to evaluate psychological stress with perceived stress scale (PSS), symptoms of anxiety and depressed mood with Hospital anxiety and depression scale (HAD), and resilience with Conner-Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC). Medical residents and interns, who worked in a hospital during COVID-19 event, filled the self-reporting forms from july, 2020 to august, 2020. We conducted a Pearson correlation coefficient and a multiple regression to confirm association between psychological stress and symptoms of anxiety and depressed mood, then mediating effect of resilience.
Results
: The higher stress perceived, the more symptoms of anxiety and depressed mood were reported by medical residents and interns. The higher resilience is associated with lower stress and less symptoms of anxiety and depressed mood, which resilience is proven to mediate partially the association between stress and symptoms of depressed mood.
Conclusions
: This study shows that resilience has a partial mediating effects on the association between stress and psychological pathology especially depressed mood, given that medical residents and interns were under psychological distress during COVID-19 event. This suggests that resilience is the key for medical trainees to overcome the future crisis like COVID-19 event.

Keyword

COVID-19; Medical trainees; Stress; Depressed mood; Anxiety; Resilience