Anxiety and depression symptoms in nursing: a descriptive and inferential study
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.21615/cesp.7180Keywords:
anxiety, depression, nursing, mental health, occupational healthAbstract
This cross-sectional study aimed to evaluate the presence of anxiety and depression symptoms in 584 nursing professionals, as well as to verify possible differences in response means between groups formed based on several sociodemographic and occupational variables, correlations and predictive analyzes in relation to the symptoms. The following instruments were applied: sociodemographic and labor questionnaire, the Baptista Depression Scale (adult version) – EBADEP-A and the Cognitive Anxiety Scale (adult version) – ECOGA. It was found that most workers did not show high levels of anxiety and depression. Women had a higher presence of anxiety and depression symptoms; professionals aged up to 30 years and who worked for up to 10 years showed higher averages of anxiety; workers with double shifts reported higher symptoms of depression. The model with the best predictive capacity for depressive symptoms included the variables was being younger, being female, having a higher daily workload and having more than one job. Greater perception of anxiety symptoms was better explained by the variables being younger and female. It is concluded that sociodemographic and work factors should be considered when proposing mental health prevention strategies with nursing professionals, especially with regard to symptoms of depression and anxiety.
Downloads
References
American Psychiatric Association - APA. (2014). Manual Diagnóstico Estatístico de Transtornos Mentais: DSM 5. 5ª ed. Porto Alegre: Artmed.
Baptista, M. N. (2012). Escala Baptista de Depressão - Versão Adulto (EBADEP-A). São Paulo: Vetor Editora.
Baptista, M. N., Cardoso, H. F., & Gomes, J. O. (2012). Escala Baptista de Depressão (Versão Adulto) – EBADEP-A: validade convergente e estabilidade temporal. Psico-USF, 17(3), 407–416. https://doi.org/10.1590/S1413-82712012000300007
Baptista, M. N., Falcone, E. M. O., Viegas, M. P., Oliveira, E. R., Krieger, S., Pereira, L. B., Alves, A. J. C. P., Peluso, M. L., & Silva, F. T. (2020). Estrutura interna da Escala Cognitiva de Ansiedade (ECOGA). Psico-USF, 25(4), 751–762. https://doi.org/10.1590/1413/82712020250413
Bertussi, V. C., Junqueira, M. A. B., Giuliani, C. D., Calçado, R. M., Miranda, F. J. S., Santos, M. A., & Pillon, S. C. (2018). Substâncias psicoativas e saúde mental em profissionais de enfermagem da Estratégia Saúde da Família. Revista Eletrônica de Enfermagem, 20(21), 1-9. http://dx.doi.org/10.5216/ree.v20.47820
Booker, L. A., Sletten, T. L., Alvaro, P. K., Barnes, M., Collins, A., Chai‐Coetzer, C. L., Naqvi, A., McMahon, M., Lockley, S., Rajaratnam, S. M. W., & Howard, M. E. (2019). Exploring the associations between shift work disorder, depression, anxiety and sick leave taken amongst nurses. Journal of Sleep Research, 3(e12872). http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/jsr.12872
Carvalho, D., Querido, A., Tomás, C., Gomes, J., & Cordeiro, M. (2019). A saúde mental dos enfermeiros: um estudo preliminar. Revista Portuguesa de Enfermagem de Saúde Mental, 21, 47-53. http://dx.doi.org/10.19131/rpesm.0237
Carvalho, L. F., & Baptista, M. N. (2022). Acurácia diagnóstica da Escala Baptista de Depressão: versões adulto e triagem (EBADEP A e EBADEP triagem). Psicologia: Teoria e Prática, 24(2), 119–130. https://doi.org/10.1590/0102.3772e37449
Chen, Y. C., Guo, Y. L. L., Lin, L. C., Lee, Y., Hu, P., Ho, J., & Shiao, J. S. (2020). Development of the Nurses’ Occupational Stressor Scale. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 17(2), 649. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17020649
Dancey, C. P., & Reidy, J. (2006). Estatística sem Matemática para Psicologia: usando SPSS para Windows, 3 ed. Porto Alegre: Artmed.
DeMarco, E. C., Zocher, S., Miyamoto, B, Hinyard, L., & Subramaniam, D.S. (2025). Increased depressive and anxiety symptoms predict increased severity of functional impairment after five years: A nationally representative retrospective cohort study. Journal of Patient-Centered Research and Reviews, 12(1), 21–31. https://doi.org/10.17294/2330-0698.2097
Falcone, E. M. O., Baptista, M. N., Placido, M. G., Krieger, S., Oliveira, E. R., Falcone, J. F., & Vieira, B. F. L. (2016). Construção e validade de conteúdo da escala cognitiva de ansiedade em adultos. Revista Psicologia em Pesquisa, 10(1), 85-93. https://periodicos.ufjf.br/index.php/psicologiaempesquisa/article/view/23349
Field, A. (2013). Discovering statistics using IBM SPSS statistics (4th ed.). SAGE Publications. Frontiers Neuroscience. (2022). The unique face of comorbid anxiety and depression. Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnbeh.2022.1083357
Gujarati, D. N., & Porter, D. C. (2011). Econometria básica (5ª ed.). AMGH Editora.
Hair, J. F., Black, W. C., Babin, B. J., & Anderson, R. E. (2019). Multivariate data analysis (8th ed.). Cengage Learning.
Hu, X., Mu, W., Zhou, J., Huang, W., Ren, L., & Zeng, H. (2024). Risk factors for anxiety, depression, stress, and their comorbidities among nurses: A prospective cohort from 2020 to 2022. BMC Nursing, 23, 916. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12912-024-02577-6
Huang, C. L. C., Wu, M. P., Ho, C. H., & Wang, J. J. (2018). Risks of treated anxiety, depression, and insomnia among nurses: A nationwide longitudinal cohort study. Plos One, 13(9), e0204224. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0204224
Maharaj, S., Lees, T., & Lal, S. (2019). Prevalence and Risk Factors of Depression, Anxiety, and Stress in a Cohort of Australian Nurses. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 16(61), 1-10. http://dx.doi.org/doi:10.3390/ijerph16010061
Martinez, M. C., Latorre, M. R. D. O., & Fisher, F. M. (2017). Estressores afetando a capacidade para o trabalho em diferentes grupos etários na Enfermagem: seguimento de 2 anos. Ciência e saúde coletiva, 22(5), 1589-1600. http://dx.doi.org/10.1590/1413-81232017225.09682015
Organização Mundial da Saúde (2018). Saúde Mental, Folha informativa – Depressão. https://www.paho.org/bra/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&layout=blog&id=1257&Itemid=826.
Pachi, A., Sikaras, C., Melas, D., Alikanioti, S., Soultanis, N., Ivanidou, M., Ilias, I., & Tselebis, A. (2025). Stress, anxiety and depressive symptoms, burnout and insomnia among Greek nurses one year after the end of the pandemic: A moderated chain mediation model. Journal of Clinical Medicine, 14(4), 1145. https://doi.org/10.3390/jcm14041145
Pereira, I. F., Faria, L. C., Vianna, R. S. M., Corrêa, P. D. S., Freitas, D. A., & Soares, W. D. (2017). Depressão e uso de medicamentos em profissionais de enfermagem. Arquivos de Ciências da Saúde, 24(1), 70-74.
Pereira, T. C., Santos, D. R., & Oliveira, J. P. (2024). Revisão sistemática de instrumentos de ansiedade no Brasil: foco em escalas cognitivo-comportamentais. Psicologia: Ciência e Profissão, 44(1), 121–138.
Porter, W. D., Hatch, D., Pendergast, J. F., Freude, G., Rose, U., Burr, H., Müller, G., Martus, P., Pohrt, A., & Potter, G. (2018). 12-month trajectories of depressive symptoms among nurses: Contribution of personality, job characteristics, coping, and burnout. Journal of Affective Disorders, 234, 67-73. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2018.02.090
Prieto, G., & Muñiz, J. (2000). Um modelo para evaluar la calidad de tests usados na Espanha. Papeles del Psicólogo, 77. http://www.redalyc.org/pdf/778/77807709.pdf.
Ribeiro, H. K. P., Santos, J. D. M., Silva, M. G., Medeiro, F. D. A., & Fernandes, M. A. (2019). Transtornos de ansiedade como causa de afastamentos laborais. Revista Brasileira de Saúde Ocupacional, 44, 1-8. https://doi.org/10.1590/2317-6369000021417
Saquib, N., Zaghloul, M. S., Saquib, J., Alhomaidan, H. T., Al‐Mohaimeed, A., & Al‐Mazrou, A. (2019). Association of cumulative job dissatisfaction with depression, anxiety and stress among expatriate nurses in Saudi Arabia. Journal of Nursing Management, 27, 740–48. http://dx.doi.org/doi:10.1111/jonm.12762
Shajan, A., & Nisha, C. (2019). Anxiety and Depression among nurses working in a tertiary care hospital in South India. International Journal of Advances in Medicine, 6(5), 1611-1615. http://dx.doi.org/10.18203/2349-3933.ijam20194228
Silva, A. P. (2023). Validação da EBADEP A: evidências de concordância com a Escala de Hamilton para Depressão em população clínica. Journal of Brazilian Psychological Assessment, 29(1), 45–59.
Silva, D. V. (2017). Ansiedade, estresse, depressão e uso de drogas entre trabalhadores de enfermagem no ambiente hospitalar. Dissertação de mestrado. Universidade Federal de Uberlândia. https://repositorio.ufu.br/bitstream/123456789/19105/1/AnsiedadeEstresseDepressao.pdf
Silva, T. M. L., Lopes, R. H., & Maia, K. K. O. (2019). Vestimentas dos profissionais da saúde: riscos e cuidados necessários. Revista de Administração em Saúde, 19(74), 1-16. http://dx.doi.org/10.23973/ras.74.156
Tran, T. T. T., Nguyen, N. B., Luong, M. A., Bui, T. H. A., Phan, T. D., Tran, V. O., Ngo, T. H., Minas, H., & Nguyen, T. Q. (2019). Stress, anxiety and depression in clinical nurses in Vietnam: a cross-sectional survey and cluster analysis. International Journal of Mental Health. 13(3), 1-11 https://doi.org/10.1186/s13033-018-0257-4
Trindade, P. S. R. L., Suhet, A. G., Soares, C. M. M., Leite, J. P. de C., Franco, M. de A., Lourenço, L. M., & Baptista, M. N. (2025). Escalas para avaliação de ansiedade em adultos no Brasil e no mundo: uma revisão sistemática. Contribuciones a las ciencias sociales, 18(4), e16927. https://doi.org/10.55905/revconv.18n.4-115
Tsaras, K., Papathanasiou, I. V., Vus, V., Panagiotopoulou, A., Katsou, M. A., Kelesi, M., & Fradelos, E. C. (2018). Predicting Factors of Depression and Anxiety in Mental Health Nurses: A Quantitative Cross-Sectional Study. Medical Archives. 72(1), 62-7. http://dx.doi.org/doi:10.5455/medarh.2017.72.62-67
Twenge, J. M., Cooper, A. B., Joiner, T. E., Duffy, M. E., & Binau, S. G. (2019). Age, period, and cohort trends in mood disorder indicators and suicide-related outcomes in a nationally representative dataset, 2005–2017. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 128(3), 185–199. https://doi.org/10.1037/abn0000410
World Health Organization. (2023). World mental health report: Transforming mental health for all. https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/9789240049338
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2025 Jhenifer Prescilla Dias Fuzinelli, Hugo Ferrari Cardoso, Sandra Leal Calais, Makilim Nunes Baptista

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Each manuscript is accompanied by a statement specifyingThat the materials are unpublished, that have not been previously published in printed formatElectronic and that they will not be presented to any other means before knowing the decision of the magazine. ThroughoutIn case, any previous publication, sea in printed or electronic form, must be made known to the editorial staffWriting The authors attach a signed statement stating that, and the manuscript is acceptedFor publication, the rights of reproduction are the exclusive property of the Journal CES Psychology.

