Original title: Immediate Psychological Responses and Associated Factors during the Initial Stage of the 2019 Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) Epidemic among the General Population in China
Researchers surveyed people across China during the first days of the COVID-19 outbreak. They asked about distress, anxiety, depression, stress, health, and access to information. More than half rated the outbreak’s psychological impact as moderate or severe, and about one in three reported moderate to severe anxiety. People reporting certain symptoms or poor health tended to report more distress; accurate information and precautions tended to go with less.
Imagine checking on your neighbours during a sudden storm. Some are more worried because they feel unwell or their own health seems poor, while others feel steadier when they get clear updates and know what steps to take. In this paper, the neighbours are the people surveyed, and their worries and circumstances show which factors went along with greater or lower distress during the outbreak.
An outbreak affects mental health as well as physical health. This survey found that symptoms and poor self-rated health were linked with greater distress, while accurate health information and precautions were linked with less. Those patterns can help guide support for people who may be more vulnerable during an epidemic.
The survey was conducted online over a short period and used snowball sampling, so its respondents may not represent the whole population of China. It measures responses during the initial stage of the outbreak and reports associations; it does not establish that the factors identified caused changes in mental health or show how people fared later.
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Immediate Psychological Responses and Associated Factors during the Initial Stage of the 2019 Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) Epidemic among the General Population in China — Cuiyan Wang, Riyu Pan, Xiaoyang Wan et al. — International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health — doi:10.3390/ijerph17051729
Abstract licence: CC BY
Explanation generated by Synthesis from the abstract — it is not the original paper.