Data_Sheet_1_Quality of therapy and mental health among occupational therapists during the COVID-19 pandemic.PDF

IntroductionThe coronavirus disease of 2019 (COVID-19) has had a severe psychological impact on occupational therapists. Clarifying the mental health status of occupational therapists and its relationship with therapy quality is essential for maintaining the quality of care and patients' quality of life. Therefore, the present study aimed to investigate whether and how mental health problems are related to the quality of occupational therapy.MethodsA nationwide cross-sectional online survey was conducted during Japan's second national state of emergency (January 2021). A total of 4,418 registered occupational therapists who were members of the Japanese Association of Occupational Therapists participated in this study. After screening for the exclusion criteria, data from 1,966 participants were analyzed.ResultsPath analysis showed that insufficient information provision by the workplace and increased workload were associated with depression, anxiety, and insomnia. Specifically, depression was associated with decreased therapy quality. Furthermore, one's therapy quality showed a strong positive correlation with colleagues' therapy quality.DiscussionThese results demonstrated a direct link between therapists' mental health conditions and therapy quality and suggested that decreased therapy quality might occur at the institutional rather than individual level. A reassessment of the support system and prompt detection and support for professionals with psychological symptoms may be the key to enhancing therapy quality and patients' quality of life. The present results contribute to the understanding of these relationships, considering the current pandemic context for occupational therapists.</p

Demographic characteristics of participants.

<p>Demographic characteristics of participants.</p

Profile of Mood States (POMS) subscale scores in the study.

<p>Profile of Mood States (POMS) subscale scores in the study.</p

Procedure for measuring attentional bias.

<p>Once the facial photographs had been displayed for 500 ms, the subject was instructed to press a button to choose the most neutral face. The images were presented simultaneously, one above the other, at 1,600 (vertical) × 900 pixels (horizontal). The buttons could only be pressed after the images had been displayed, and the time taken to select the neutral image was recorded. Trials were performed 128 times, and RTs of <200 or >2,000 ms were excluded from the statistical analysis as outliers.</p

Analysis of the association between RTs and POMS scores.

<p>The horizontal axis shows POMS subscale scores and the vertical axis indicates RTs; scores for the 27 subjects are represented by dots in the gray regions. Bold boxes indicate significant correlations. There were significant positive correlations between RTs and scores for the Tension-Anxiety (<i>r</i> = 0.679, <i>p</i> < 0.01) and Fatigue (<i>r</i> = 0.585, <i>p</i> < 0.01) subscales. Correlation coefficients (<i>r</i>) were analyzed via Spearman's rank-order correlation analysis. <i>n</i> = 27, *<i>p</i> < .05.</p

Demographic characteristics of participants.

<p>Demographic characteristics of participants.</p

Disease and treatment characteristics of participants.

<p>Disease and treatment characteristics of participants.</p

Comparison of negative POMS scores between subjects with fast and slow RTs.

<p>Mean RTs for the slower (<i>n</i> = 8) and faster (<i>n</i> = 19) groups were 778 (<i>SD</i> = 33) ms and 927 (<i>SD</i> = 86) ms, respectively. Both Tension-Anxiety (<i>t</i> = 4.108, <i>p</i> < .001, <i>r</i> = .64) and Fatigue (<i>t</i> = 2.724, <i>p</i> < .01, <i>r</i> = .48) subscale scores in subjects with slower RTs were significantly higher relative to those observed in subjects with faster RTs. Non-paired <i>t</i> test, *<i>p</i> < .05.</p

Results of the whole-brain voxel-based analyses.

<p>First row: The brain regions that exhibited regional cerebral glucose metabolic reductions in the 60 PD patients relative to 14 normal volunteers (p<0.05 uncorrected, extent threshold of 100 voxels). Second row and below: The brain regions in which the resting CMRglc was correlated with the RTs in the various psychophysical tasks (Global: second row, Local: third row, Mixed: fourth row) and the shift cost (fifth row) (<i>p</i><0.001 uncorrected, extent threshold of 100 voxels). PD, Parkinson’s disease; R, right; L, left.</p

Brain regions in which regional cerebral glucose metabolism was negatively correlated with psychophysical task response time.

<p>Brain regions in which regional cerebral glucose metabolism was negatively correlated with psychophysical task response time.</p