Mexico Joins PAHO's Regional Mental Health Survey

PAHO and WHO will conduct a regional survey on mental health, well-being, and working conditions among physicians and nurses in 17 countries, including Mexico, with data collection from Sept. 21 to Oct. 18, 2026. The study responds to fragmented regional evidence and rising occupational stress indicators, with anxiety and burnout already driving 60% of workplace medical consultations in Mexico. Findings will inform health workforce policy amid documented shortages of physicians and nurses relative to OECD benchmarks.  

Mexico will join 16 other countries in a Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) and World Health Organization (WHO) study assessing the mental health, well-being, and working conditions of physicians and nurses across the Americas. The country will first take part in a pilot phase, alongside Brazil, Guatemala, Trinidad and Tobago, and Ecuador, before full regional data collection runs from Sept. 21 to Oct. 18, 2026. 

The initiative responds to a documented rise in mental health strain among Mexico's health workforce, a trend already visible beyond clinical settings. Anxiety and burnout account for six of every 10 workplace-related medical consultations in the country, according to the 2026 X-Ray of Job Health study by Sofía. "Many patients do not initially report mental health concerns," says Marcela del Águila, Medical Director at Sofía, noting that complaints of insomnia, chronic fatigue, or gastritis often trace back to sustained occupational stress. The PAHO/WHO study aims to convert that kind of anecdotal pattern into standardized, comparable regional data.  

PAHO says the evidence available on health workers' mental health across the region is fragmented, drawing on different populations, instruments, and methodologies that limit cross-country comparison. To close that gap, the organization will apply a single conceptual and methodological framework simultaneously in all 17 participating countries, allowing results to be broken down by country, subregion, profession, and sector.

The research adapts the Mental Health of Nurses and Doctors (MeND) survey, originally developed by the WHO Regional Office for the European Union and applied in 27 European Union member states plus Iceland and Norway. The regional adaptation will be available in Spanish, English, and Portuguese and will cover sociodemographic characteristics, working conditions, anxiety, depression, substance use, and subjective well-being.

The study aligns with PAHO's Health Workforce Policy 2030, whose fifth strategic line identifies working conditions and health worker well-being as critical to advancing universal health access. PAHO also cites the COVID-19 pandemic as part of the study's rationale, pointing to elevated rates of anxiety, depression, and burnout amid staffing shortages, precarious labor conditions, high turnover, and limited psychosocial protection during that period. The concern is not isolated to the pandemic era: Mexico counts 2.7 physicians and three nurses per 1,000 inhabitants, versus OECD averages of 3.9 and 9.2, respectively, while PAHO projects a regional shortfall of 200,000 nurses in the coming years — structural pressures that compound the working conditions the new survey seeks to measure.

The questionnaire will be online, anonymous, self-administered, and take an estimated 20 to 25 minutes to complete. Eligible respondents are limited to physicians and nurses currently engaged in direct clinical or care work, recruited through professional associations, nursing and medical colleges, PAHO/WHO Collaborating Centers, ministries of health, and PAHO's country offices.

The protocol was approved by PAHO's Ethical Review Committee under reference PAHOERC.0971.1 and follows CIOMS/WHO International Ethical Guidelines. PAHO classified the study as minimal risk, with voluntary participation throughout. Protective measures include no collection of personally identifiable data, no IP address logging, no geolocation storage, and mandatory online informed consent before access to the questionnaire. Participants will also receive information on country-specific mental health support resources.

Beyond Mexico, the study will extend to Barbados, Belize, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Guyana, Honduras, Paraguay, Peru, Trinidad and Tobago, and Uruguay, covering all four subregions of the Americas under one methodological framework. PAHO expects the findings to serve as technical input for national and regional policies on health worker well-being and working conditions, and to enable future comparative analysis against the European MeND results. The effort is coordinated by PAHO's Health Workforce Unit in collaboration with its Mental Health and Substance Use Unit.