Resilience outcomes and associated factors among workers in community-based HIV care centres during the Covid-19 pandemic: A multi-country analysis from the EPIC program

• Published in: Health Policy OPEN 2023-12, Vol.5, p.100105, Article 100105
• Main Authors: Di Ciaccio, Marion, Lorente, Nicolas, Villes, Virginie, Maxence, Axel Akpaka, Vargas Pelaez, Claudia Marcela, Guillen, José Rafael, Castillo, Ingrid, Folch, Cinta, Diagne, Rokhaya, Riegel, Lucas, Delabre, Rosemary M, Rojas Castro, Daniela
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: CHW; COVID-19 crisis; HIV; Mental health; Original; Resilience
• ISSN: 2590-2296; 2590-2296
• DOI: 10.1016/j.hpopen.2023.100105

Community health workers (CHW) were integral in the COVID-19 response, particularly concerning services for populations vulnerable to HIV. Little is known regarding the mental health of CHW during the COVID-19 crisis. The objective of this study was to study resilience of CHW working in HIV non-governmental organizations. An anonymous online, cross-sectional questionnaire was implemented during 2021 among CHW in Benin, Colombia, Guatemala, and Spain. Three scales were used to assess mental health: the 6-item Brief-Resilience Scale, the 9-item Patient Scale Questionnaire and the 7-item Generalized-Anxiety-Disorder scale. Logistic regression models were used to identify factors associated with "low" resilience vs "normal" or "high" resilience. Among 295 respondents, the median standardized resilience score was 58.33 (IQR = [50.0-75.0], n = 267), 18.52 (IQR = [7.4-33.3], n = 282) for standardized depression score and 19.05 (IQR = [4.8-33.3], n = 274) for standardized anxiety score. Standardized resilience score was negatively correlated with standardized anxiety score (rho = -0.49, p