Risk Factors for Mental Disorders of Health Personnel in Training during COVID-19

Introduction: The estimation of the university student population that needs mental health services is important for those responsible for generating policies for their physical, mental, and emotional well-being. Objective: To identify the factors associated with the presence of mental disorders in the in-training basic health team during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: An observational, cross-sectional, and analytical study was carried out in a sample of 214 university students of Nursing, Human Medicine, and Obstetrics, aged 18 to 30 years. The dependent variable was ‘mental disorder’, measured through the Goldberg and Hillier General Health Questionnaire. Chi-square tests, Fisher’s exact test, and binary logistic regression were used. Results: The participants were students of Nursing (80, 38.84%), Human Medicine (81,39.32%), and Obstetrics (45, 21.85%), the majority of whom were female (75.73%), aged 21 to 29 years (80.37%). The mental disorder was evidenced in 96 of them (46.60%). Those who came from the department of Ica (aOR=2.94; 95%CI=1.37-6.79; p=0.008), those who had a history of a deceased family member as a confirmed or suspected case of COVID-19 (aOR= 2.22; 95% CI=1.23-4.06; p=0.009), and those with 22 or more points on the coronavirus fear scale (aOR=3.10; 95%CI=1.61-6,13; p=0.001) had a higher risk of mental disorder. The model’s precision was 66.5%. Conclusions: Mental disorder is present in in-training human health resources; it would be conditioned by place of origin, the history of the death of a relative as a suspected or confirmed case of COVID-19, and fear of coronavirus.