Abstract
Background: Since December 2019, China has been affected by a severe outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Frontline medical workers experienced difficulty due to the high risk of being infected and long and distressing work shifts. The current study aims to evaluate psychological symptoms in frontline medical workers during the COVID-19 epidemic in China and to perform a comparison with the general population. Methods: An online survey was conducted from 14 February 2020 to 29 March 2020. A total of 899 frontline medical workers and 1104 respondents in the general population participated. Depression, anxiety, insomnia, and resilience were assessed via the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9), Generalized Anxiety Disorder Scale (GAD-7), Insomnia Severity Index (ISI), and abbreviated Connor–Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC-10), respectively. Results: Overall, 30.43%, 20.29%, and 14.49% of frontline medical workers in Hubei Province and 23.13%, 13.14%, and 10.64% of frontline medical workers in other regions reported symptoms of depression, anxiety, and insomnia, respectively. In addition, 23.33%, 16.67%, and 6.67% of the general population in Hubei Province and 18.25%, 9.22%, and 7.17% of the general population in other regions reported symptoms of depression, anxiety, and insomnia, respectively. The resilience of frontline medical staff outside Hubei Province was higher than that of the general population outside Hubei Province. Conclusion: A large proportion of frontline medical workers and the general public experienced psychological symptoms during the COVID-19 outbreak. Psychological services for frontline medical workers and the general public are needed.
Highlights
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) was first reported in Wuhan, China at the end of 2019.Hubei Province is the most severely affected area in China, and more than 68,000 COVID-19 cases have been reported there since December 2019
Online questionnaires were administered via a WeChat applet. Data were collected both from the general population and from frontline medical workers during the COVID-19 pandemic from 14 February 2020 to 29 March
We found that the prevalence of depression, anxiety, and insomnia in our study is similar to that reported in Wang et al.’s study [41]
Summary
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) was first reported in Wuhan, China at the end of 2019. Hubei Province is the most severely affected area in China, and more than 68,000 COVID-19 cases have been reported there since December 2019. As of 8 March 2020, the Chinese government had sent 346 medical teams across the country in response to the COVID-19 outbreak, and a total of. Since December 2019, China has been affected by a severe outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). The current study aims to evaluate psychological symptoms in frontline medical workers during the COVID-19 epidemic in. A total of 899 frontline medical workers and 1104 respondents in the general population participated. Results: Overall, 30.43%, 20.29%, and 14.49% of frontline medical workers in Hubei
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