Impact of COVID-19 on mental disorder claims among healthcare workers

BACKGROUND: Healthcare workers (HCWs) face ongoing mental health challenges, which were aggravated during the COVID-19 pandemic due to increased workloads, exposure to trauma and heightened infection risks. Although self-reported data have indicated elevated mental health symptoms among HCWs, there is limited evidence based on official workers' compensation claims to assess the true extent of work-related mental disorders in this group. AIMS: To examine changes in workers' compensation claims for mental disorders among HCWs and other workers before and throughout the first 2 years of the pandemic. METHODS: Mental disorder compensation claims data from January 2019 to December 2021 among HCWs and other workers were obtained from the Workers' Compensation Board of British Columbia. Monthly claim rates were calculated using denominator data derived from Statistics Canada's Labour Force Survey. Changes in claim rates among HCWs were assessed through interrupted time series analysis using other workers as control and the onset of the pandemic as the event. RESULTS: The analysis found no significant shifts in the incidence of mental disorder claims among HCWs during the pandemic. In contrast, a marginal increase in claim rates during the same period was observed in other workers. CONCLUSIONS: Unlike prior research based on self-reported data, this study found no evidence of an increase in mental disorder claims among HCWs during the pandemic. These results suggest that workers' compensation claims data may not fully capture the broader mental health challenges experienced by HCWs, potentially due to underreporting or barriers to accessing claims.