Psychosocial predictors of anxiety and depression in a sample of healthcare workers in Botswana during the COVID-19 pandemic: A multicenter cross-sectional study

Objectives: This study aimed to investigate the psychological impact of the COVID-19 outbreak on healthcare workers across multiple hospitals in different districts in Botswana. Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional study in five public-funded hospitals from three districts in Botswana from I June 2020 to 30 October 2020. We used the neuroticism subscale of the 44-item Big Five Inventory, Patient Health Questionnaire, the Oslo 3-item Social Support Scale, the Anxiety Rating Scale, and the 14-item Resilience Scale to obtain data from 355 healthcare workers. Results: The participants' mean age (standard deviation) was 33.77 (6.84) years. More females (207, 59%) responded than males (144, 41 %). Anxiety and depression were experienced by 14% and 23% of the participants, respectively. After multiple regression analyses, neuroticism predicted depression (B=0.22; p < 0.01) and anxiety disorder (B=0.31; p < 0.01). Lower educational status (B= -0.13; p= 0.007) predicted anxiety and younger age (B=-0.10; p= 0.038) predicted depression, while resilience negatively correlated with both disorders. Conclusion: There is a need to develop and implement interventions targeted at these identified risk and protective factors that can be easily delivered to healthcare workers during this pandemic.