Smoking rates are up among all hospital workers working on the frontline of the Covid-19 pandemic. This is due to all of the stress and is even the case for all of the people who work at health care facilities from receptionists to maintenance staffers. This is according to a new study from researchers at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.
The study, published in the journal Nicotine and Tobacco Research’s special issue devoted to smoking and COVID-19, found that being on the COVID-19 frontlines could negatively impact hospital workers’ mental health. And there is a correlation between different kinds of mental issues, including stress, and higher smoking rates.
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At Israel’s Hadassah Medical Center, more than half (59%) of hospital workers reported an increase in stress levels. Further, one third (35%) of those surveyed who were smokers noticed an uptick in the number of cigarettes they smoked each day during the coronavirus pandemic, for a higher smoking rate.
The study was led by Dr. Yael Bar-Zeev and Dr. Nir Hirshoren at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HU)’s Braun School of Public Health and Hadassah Medical Center, along with Lev Academic Center’s Dr. Michal Shauly-Aharonov and HU’s Prof. Yehuda Neumark. It surveyed close to 1,000 hospital workers between the first and second wave of the coronavirus. Of all the doctors, nurses, allied health professionals, administrative and maintenance workers surveyed, 132 were smokers.
In contrast to similar worldwide studies that focused on stress levels among general populations during the early lockdowns, this new study focused on hospital workers and their smoking rates during a relatively slower period–between the first and second coronavirus waves—when the number of COVID-19 infections and deaths were low.
The study’s findings emphasize the need to provide mental health support for all hospital workers as part of the pandemic response, paying specific attention to smokers, their rise in smoking rates and those experiencing sleep disturbances. “Many smokers won’t be receptive to cessation programs right now. However, as the pandemic shows no signs of letting up, health ministries and hospitals need to take the mental health of their employees seriously and to provide stress-coping support for all their staff, even those not behind the gurney or with a scalpel in hand,” Bar-Zeev added.
