A longitudinal study on emotional distress among local government staff seven years after the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake in China

Yunge Fan,Ruiru Wang,Guangming Liang,Hong Ma,Jia Hu,Menglin Liu,Ming He,Baoming Wu,Hu Xiang,Wenhong Cheng,Xin Yu,Xiaojie Mou,Xiuzhen Wang,Guoping Huang,Xianmei Yang,Yongbiao Xie,Lili Guan

doi:10.1186/s12889-021-10726-8

Abstract

BackgroundThe current study examined the change in local government staff’s emotional distress over 7 years after the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake, and the influence of earthquake exposure and professional quality of life (ProQOL) on emotional distress.MethodsThis longitudinal study assessed 250 participants at 1 year after the earthquake; 162 (64.8%) were followed up at 7 years. Emotional distress was assessed with the Self-Reporting Questionnaire (SRQ) at both time points. We assessed ProQOL, including compassion satisfaction, burnout, and secondary traumatic stress, and earthquake exposure at 1 year. Wilcoxon signed-rank tests were performed to test longitudinal changes in emotional distress. Hierarchical multiple regression was conducted to examine the effect of earthquake exposure and ProQOL.ResultsThe positive screening rate of emotional distress (SRQ ≥ 8) was 37.6 and 15.4% at one and 7 years, respectively. Emotional distress scores declined over time (p < 0.001). Earthquake exposure and ProQOL predicted one-year (ps < 0.05) but not seven-year emotional distress, whereas burnout predicted both one-year (p = 0.018) and seven-year (p = 0.047) emotional distress.ConclusionsAlthough emotional distress can recover over time, it persists even 7 years later. Actions to reduce burnout during the early stage of post-disaster rescue have long-term benefits to staff’s psychological outcomes.

Highlights

The current study examined the change in local government staff’s emotional distress over 7 years after the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake, and the influence of earthquake exposure and professional quality of life (ProQOL) on emotional distress
As the psychological sequelae of a disaster can last for many years [7], the long-term psychological outcomes of the local government staff and the associated factors of their emotional distress are of particular interest [2]
Participants A total of 250 participants were recruited from two badly hit disaster areas, namely, counties of Beichuan and An. Eligible participants were those who experienced the earthquake and local government staff engaging in the post-disaster relief and reconstruction

Summary

Introduction

The current study examined the change in local government staff’s emotional distress over 7 years after the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake, and the influence of earthquake exposure and professional quality of life (ProQOL) on emotional distress. The staff, while working as rescuers, were survivors of the disaster. Their dual role exacerbated the development of psychological distress [3]. The reported prevalence of depression and anxiety among the local staff was 38.7% 1 year after the Wenchuan earthquake [4], and more than half of the staff in the extremely affected areas experienced mental disorders [5]. Few studies have focused on the long-term psychological health of this special population [6] using a longitudinal design to investigate their mental health outcomes. As the psychological sequelae of a disaster can last for many years [7], the long-term psychological outcomes of the local government staff and the associated factors of their emotional distress are of particular interest [2]

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion