Psychosocial predictors of anxiety and depression in a sample of healthcare workers in Botswana during the COVID-19 pandemic: A multicenter cross-sectional study.

Objectives: This study aimed to investigate the psychological impact of the COVID-19 outbreak on healthcare workers across multiple hospitals in different districts in Botswana. Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional study in five public-funded hospitals from three districts in Botswana from 1 June 2020 to 30 October 2020. We used the neuroticism subscale of the 44-item Big Five Inventory, Patient Health Questionnaire, the Oslo 3-item Social Support Scale, the Anxiety Rating Scale, and the 14-item Resilience Scale to obtain data from 355 healthcare workers. Results: The participants' mean age (standard deviation) was 33.77 (6.84) years. More females (207, 59%) responded than males (144, 41%). Anxiety and depression were experienced by 14% and 23% of the participants, respectively. After multiple regression analyses, neuroticism predicted depression (B = 0.22; p < 0.01) and anxiety disorder (B = 0.31; p < 0.01). Lower educational status (B = -0.13; p = 0.007) predicted anxiety and younger age (B = -0.10; p = 0.038) predicted depression, while resilience negatively correlated with both disorders. Conclusion: There is a need to develop and implement interventions targeted at these identified risk and protective factors that can be easily delivered to healthcare workers during this pandemic.

ILO activities in the area of chemical safety.

The ILO has been active in the area of safety in the use of chemicals at work since the year of its creation in 1919, including the development of international treaties and other technical instruments, the provision of technical assistance to its member States, and the development of chemical safety information systems. The two key ILO standards in this area are the Conventions on safety in the use of chemicals at work (No. 170, 1990), and the Prevention of Major Industrial Accidents (No. 174, 1993). The ILO Programme on occupational safety, health and environment (Safe Work) is currently responsible for ILO chemical safety activities. In the past two decades, most of ILO work in this area has been carried out within the context of inter-agency collaboration frameworks linking the ILO, WHO, UNEP, FAO, UNIDO, UNITAR, and the OECD, including the International Programme on Chemical Safety (IPCS), the Inter-Organisation Programme for the Sound Management of Chemicals (IOMC), and the Intergovernmental Forum on Chemical Safety (IFCS). Apart from the regular development, updating and dissemination of chemical safety information data bases such as the IPCS International Chemical Cards, the elaboration of a Globally harmonized system for the classification and labelling of Chemicals (GHS) has been the most outstanding achievement of this international collaboration on chemical safety.