Psychological and Psychosocial Impact and Related Factors during the COVID-19 Pandemic among Iranian Oil Refineries Personnel: A longitudinal study

Abstract

Background: The COVID-19 outbreak is currently a critical challenge, and proper perception of the mental health situation of individuals in the working environments has become a crucial issue. This study aimed to investigate the psychological and psychosocial impact during the COVID-19 pandemic among Iranian oil refineries personnel. Methods: This longitudinal study was conducted in two phases from November 2019 to July 2020 among the 850 employees of three refineries in Iran. To study the mental workload, job burnout, lifestyle, occupational stress, general health, and memory quotient of personnel, the NASA-TLX questionnaire, Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) questionnaire, Walker’s health-promoting lifestyle questionnaire, health and safety executive (HSE) job stress questionnaire, general health questionnaire, and Wechsler memory scale were used, respectively. Data were analyzed using paired sample t test, independent sample t test, and one-way ANOVA in SPSS version 25. Results: The study results revealed that the mean age of studied personnel was 34.62±13.48 years. There was a meaningful correlation between the values of mental workload, job burnout, occupational stress, general health, healthy lifestyle, and memory quotient of personnel before and during the COVID-19 pandemic (P value<0.05). Conclusion: The COVID-19 pandemic can significantly affect the psychological and psychosocial parameters of employees in working environments. Therefore, implementing psychological interventions is absolutely necessary to promote personnel’s mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic.