Psychological Effects of COVID-19 on Mental Health and Related Factors among Workers of a Beverage Industry in Tehran, Iran

The aim of this study was to evaluate the psychological effects of COVID-19 on mental health and related factors among worker in one of the drink industry. The present analytical cross-sectional study was performed in Tehran Province, Iran. All workers in the drink industry participated in this study. Three online questionnaires, namely demographic information, Impact of Event Scale-Revised (IES-R), and Stress-Anxiety-Depression questionnaire DASS-21 were distributed among the participants through social networks (WhatsApp and Telegram) to collect data. The results suggested that 79.6% of respondents rated the psychological impact of the break as moderate; 27.9% reported moderate depressive symptoms; 25.2% reported severe or extremely severe anxiety symptoms; 19.7% reported moderate stress symptoms. The majority of respondents were aware of the transmission routes (96.6%) and the dangerous and deadly virus (51.7%) that were significantly associated with lower levels of depression (P<0.05). The majority of the respondents (90.5%) performed protective behaviors, such as wearing masks and gloves, using disinfectants, and so on against COVID-19 on a daily basis. 63.3% of respondents were concerned about getting infected COVID-19 virus that was significantly associated with a greater psychological impact of the outbreak and higher levels of stress, anxiety, and depression. In addition, 66% of the respondents always performed protective behaviors during their work shift, and 53.7% of them were satisfied with the support receiving from their workplace. Considering the growing trend of the COVID-19 epidemic worldwide, it is suggested to improve the workforce health conditions that employers and practitioners to develop new work instructions, to design online psychological interventions, to provide personal protective equipment items, etc.