PHQ-9 and GAD-7 to detect depression and anxiety in healthcare workers with and without chronic diseases

Chronic diseases are highly prevalent and represent an important burden. Comorbidity between chronic diseases and emotional disorders is common, specially for people with comorbid depression and anxiety as they lead to a worsening of the prognosis. Although the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ) can provide an easy and inexpensive way to detect them, they often remain undetected. This study explores the prevalence of these conditions amongst hospital employees using a cross-sectional study (n = 1,075). Based on employee health care records, 89 of these people had some type of chronic physical condition. We then randomly selected 89 age- and sex-matched healthy individuals for comparison. All participants completed screening tools for depression (PHQ-9) and anxiety (GAD-7). Depression and anxiety rates were, respectively, 2.97 and 2.59 times higher (OR) in the chronic group, indicating that people with chronic conditions are especially sensitive to psychosocial risks. These findings underscore the need to routinely monitor the emotional health of workers for the early detection of emotional disorders and specially in the case of particularly sensitive workers, such as those with known chronic illnesses.