Mental condition and function of resilience among families of frontline medical workers during COVID-19: Potential influencing factors and mediating effect.

BACKGROUND: Studying the role of psychological resilience in self-perceived stress and mental disorders among family members of medical workers can help us understand its importance in mental health care and guide us to develop psychological intervention strategies for family members of medical workers. METHODS: A total of 671 family members of medical workers were enrolled. Self-perceived stress, resilience, depression symptoms, anxiety symptoms, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms were measured in our research. RESULTS: The prevalence of anxiety, depression, and PTSD symptoms among relatives of medical workers were 49.0 %, 12.2 %, and 20.3 % respectively during the COVID-19 epidemic. According to the Multivariate regression model, compared with family members of doctor, family members of nurse and medical technologists were more likely to report anxiety symptoms. Female members of medical staff were more likely to have PTSD symptoms than male counterparts; and family members of medical technologist appeared to less likely have PTSD symptoms than family members of either doctor or nurse. The mediation analysis confirmed that mental resilience mediated the relationship between self-perceived stress and anxiety symptoms. LIMITATIONS: Single cross-sectional study design without the follow-up comparative analysis, only self-reported measurements were adopted, and inadequate pre-set demographic variables. CONCLUSIONS: To the best of our knowledge, our study firstly demonstrated the risk of psychological distress present in the family members of medical providers during the COVID-19 epidemic. Meanwhile, our findings highlighted the importance of mental resilience in family members of frontline medical workers as it mediated the relationship between self-perceived stress and anxiety symptoms.

Psychometric Properties of the Primary Care PTSD Screen for DSM-5: Findings From Family Members of Chinese Healthcare Workers During the Outbreak of COVID-19.

Background: Minimal research has examined utility of PC-PTSD-5 in family members of frontline medical workers. The aims of our study were to develop and elucidate the psychometric properties of the Chinese version of the PC-PTSD-5 and to determine its usefulness in screening for possible PTSD in relatives of Chinese healthcare workers during the COVID-19. Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional research in the relatives of medical staffs working in a general hospital during the COVID-19. Descriptive analysis was used to characterize demographic information of family members to find factors associated with PTSD symptoms. For reliability test, the internal consistency of PC-PTSD-5 was accessed using Cronbach's alpha coefficient. A validity test was assessed by Pearson's correlation between scales. A receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was used to evaluate the optimal cutoff score with the maximum Youden Index in this study. Results: The result of demographic information indicated that gender and the type of work undertaken by medical staff in the family have a potential impact on the PTSD symptoms of medical staff's family members. Cronbach's alpha coefficient of PC-PTSD-5 was 0.83, indicating the high reliability. Good validity was also demonstrated by Pearson coefficient. By calculating the Youden index, a cutoff score of 2 was found to be optimal in our study, with sensitivity of 80.74% and specificity of 88.43%. Conclusions: Our study has demonstrated the robust psychometric strengths of the PC-PTSD-5, introducing a reliable tool for screening PTSD among vulnerable and neglected families of these medical workers.