Portillo-Van Diest, AnaVilagut Saiz, Gemma, 1975-Alayo, ItxasoFerrer Forés, Maria MontserratAmigo, FrancoAmann, Benedikt LorenzRius, CristinaSanz, FerranSerra, ConsolPérez Solá, VictorAlonso Caballero, JordiMortier, PhilippeMINDCOVID Working group2023-10-022023-10-022023Portillo-Van Diest A, Vilagut G, Alayo I, Ferrer M, Amigo F, Amann BL, et al. Traumatic stress symptoms among Spanish healthcare workers during the COVID-19 pandemic: a prospective study. Epidemiol Psychiatr Sci. 2023 Aug 9;32:e50. DOI: 10.1017/S20457960230006282045-7960http://hdl.handle.net/10230/58016Aim: To investigate the occurrence of traumatic stress symptoms (TSS) among healthcare workers active during the COVID-19 pandemic and to obtain insight as to which pandemic-related stressful experiences are associated with onset and persistence of traumatic stress. Methods: This is a multicenter prospective cohort study. Spanish healthcare workers (N = 4,809) participated at an initial assessment (i.e., just after the first wave of the Spain COVID-19 pandemic) and at a 4-month follow-up assessment using web-based surveys. Logistic regression investigated associations of 19 pandemic-related stressful experiences across four domains (infection-related, work-related, health-related and financial) with TSS prevalence, incidence and persistence, including simulations of population attributable risk proportions (PARP). Results: Thirty-day TSS prevalence at T1 was 22.1%. Four-month incidence and persistence were 11.6% and 54.2%, respectively. Auxiliary nurses had highest rates of TSS prevalence (35.1%) and incidence (16.1%). All 19 pandemic-related stressful experiences under study were associated with TSS prevalence or incidence, especially experiences from the domains of health-related (PARP range 88.4-95.6%) and work-related stressful experiences (PARP range 76.8-86.5%). Nine stressful experiences were also associated with TSS persistence, of which having patient(s) in care who died from COVID-19 had the strongest association. This association remained significant after adjusting for co-occurring depression and anxiety. Conclusions: TSSs among Spanish healthcare workers active during the COVID-19 pandemic are common and associated with various pandemic-related stressful experiences. Future research should investigate if these stressful experiences represent truly traumatic experiences and carry risk for the development of post-traumatic stress disorder.application/pdfeng© The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press. This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution and reproduction, provided the original article is properly cited.info:eu-repo/semantics/articlehttp://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S2045796023000628COVID-19Health personnelProspective cohort studyTraumatic stressinfo:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess