Abstract
As the epidemic outbreak of 2019 coronavirus disease (COVID-19), general population may experience psychological distress. Evidence has suggested that negative coping styles may be related to subsequent mental illness. Therefore, we investigate the general population’s psychological distress and coping styles in the early stages of the COVID-19 outbreak. A cross-sectional battery of surveys was conducted from February 1–4, 2020. The Kessler 6 psychological distress scale, the simplified coping style questionnaire and a general information questionnaire were administered on-line to a convenience sample of 1599 in China. A multiple linear regression analysis was performed to identify the influence factors of psychological distress. General population’s psychological distress were significant differences based on age, marriage, epidemic contact characteristics, concern with media reports, and perceived impacts of the epidemic outbreak (all p <0.001) except gender (p = 0.316). The population with younger age (F = 102.04), unmarried (t = 15.28), with history of visiting Wuhan in the past month (t = -40.86), with history of epidemics occurring in the community (t = -10.25), more concern with media reports (F = 21.84), perceived more impacts of the epidemic outbreak (changes over living situations, F = 331.71; emotional control, F = 1863.07; epidemic-related dreams, F = 1642.78) and negative coping style (t = 37.41) had higher level of psychological distress. Multivariate analysis found that marriage, epidemic contact characteristics, perceived impacts of the epidemic and coping style were the influence factors of psychological distress (all p <0.001). Epidemic of COVID-19 caused high level of psychological distress. The general mainland Chinese population with unmarried, history of visiting Wuhan in the past month, perceived more impacts of the epidemic and negative coping style had higher level of psychological distress in the early stages of COVID-19 epidemic. Psychological interventions should be implemented early, especially for those general population with such characteristics.
Highlights
The epidemic of the 2019 coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has aroused widespread concern throughout society in China
Evidence has suggested that coping styles in the face of stress have an impact on the quality of general population’s life [15,16], and negative coping styles may be related to psychological distress or mental illness such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), anxiety, and depression [7,8,12]
1068 (66.8%) were female, 531 (33.2%) were male; ages ranged from 18 to 84 years old; 914 (57.2%) were married, 685 were unmarried (42.8%); 326 (20.4%) had a history of visiting Wuhan; and 333 (20.8%) had a history of epidemics occurring in their community; 1583 (99.0%) concern with media reports related to the epidemic; 911 (56.9%) feel nervous, 767 (48.0%) feel difficult to control emotion and 612 (38.3%) have epidemic-related dreams in perceived impacts of the epidemic; 547(34.2%) respond with negative coping styles (Table 1)
Summary
The epidemic of the 2019 coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has aroused widespread concern throughout society in China. Evidence has suggested that coping styles in the face of stress have an impact on the quality of general population’s life [15,16], and negative coping styles may be related to psychological distress or mental illness such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), anxiety, and depression [7,8,12] For this reason, we conducted this study in the early stages of this epidemic to investigate the general population’s psychological distress and coping style related to the epidemic of COVID-19 so that those who have high levels of psychological distress and/or respond negatively can be detected early and undergo timely intervention
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