{"doi":"10.1371/journal.pone.0242767","title":"Emotional health concerns of oncology physicians in the United States: Fallout during the COVID-19 pandemic","abstract":"INTRODUCTION: Cancer care is significantly impacted by the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Our objective was to evaluate the early effects of the pandemic on the emotional well-being of oncology providers across the United States and explore factors associated with anxiety and depression symptoms. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A cross-sectional survey was administered to United States cancer-care physicians recruited over a two-week period (3/27/2020-4/10/2020) using snowball-convenience sampling through social media. Symptoms of anxiety and depression were measured using the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-4). RESULTS: Of 486 participants, 374 (77.0%) completed the PHQ-4: median age was 43 years; 63.2% female; all oncologic specialties were represented. The rates of anxiety and depression symptoms were 62.0% and 23.5%, respectively. Demographic factors associated with anxiety included female sex, younger age, and less time in clinical practice. Perception of inadequate personal protective equipment (68.6% vs. 57.4%, p = 0.03) and practicing in a state with more COVID-19 cases (65.8% vs. 51.1%, p = 0.01) were associated with anxiety symptoms. Factors significantly associated with both anxiety and depression included the degree to which COVID-19 has interfered with the ability to provide treatment to cancer patients and concern that patients will not receive the level of care needed for non-COVID-19 illness (all p-values <0.01). CONCLUSION: The perceived degree of interference with clinical practice along with personal concerns about COVID-19 were significantly associated with both anxiety and depression among oncology physicians in the United States during the COVID-19 pandemic. Our findings highlight factors associated with and sources of psychological distress to be addressed to protect the well-being of oncology physicians.","journal":"PLoS ONE","year":2020,"id":60310,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":63,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9389,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2020-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":292150,"name":"Deanna Teoh","orcid":"0000-0002-1931-1445","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":292154,"name":"Patricia Jewett","orcid":"0000-0001-5313-0106","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":242423,"name":"Heather Beckwith","orcid":"0000-0003-3227-7525","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":292155,"name":"Helen M. Parsons","orcid":"0000-0003-3822-9858","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":317992,"name":"Jianling Yuan","orcid":"0000-0003-1294-3391","position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":292152,"name":"Anne Blaes","orcid":"0000-0002-5433-4810","position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":259423,"name":"Emil Lou","orcid":"0000-0002-1607-1386","position":7,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":242418,"name":"Jane Yuet Ching Hui","orcid":"0000-0002-2628-0720","position":8,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":257756,"name":"Rachel I. Vogel","orcid":"0000-0003-0149-8464","position":9,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":292156,"name":"Lauren Thomaier","orcid":"0000-0002-9729-3166","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":21,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-18T21:08:47.852401Z","pmid":"33232377","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}