Conducted by BGU researchers, the study analyzed more than 53,000 tweets from hundreds of accounts of health care professionals (HCPs).
The researchers found patterns of increased sadness, fear and disgust in the HCPs tweets, as well as noticeably decreased joy.
They also found that approximately 44% of HPCs discourse on Twitter in 2020 was about professional topics, such as COVID-19 information and medical studies."HCP tweets expressed greater levels of fear just prior to pandemic waves in 2020," said BGU's Dr. Rami Puzis and Dr. Odeya Cohen. "This indicates that many HCPs observed, and were adequately qualified to anticipate pandemic development," Puzis and Cohen added.
"Our findings should be a warning to health organizations of the importance of better mental health support to help cope with the emotional consequences of the pandemic," the doctors noted.
In addition to Dr. Puzis and Dr. Cohen, the BGU research team included Aviad Elyashar, Ilia Plochotnikov and Idan-Chaim Cohen.Parallels can be found between the BGU study and a University of Calgary study published this week, which showed the coronavirus pandemic has caused a global mental health crisis among children and adolescents.
In May, the Israeli healthcare system went on strike to protest the former government’s decision to cut funding for the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. Prime Minister Naftali Bennett announced an infusion of NIS 2.5 billion into the health system on Wednesday.
The study was funded by the Ben Gurion University coronavirus taskforce and the Science and Technology Ministry.