ABSTRACT
Under the COVID-19 epidemic, the families of front-line rescue workers are under unusual pressure. We aim to understand the extent of their psychological distress in this epidemic and whether they have received sufficient support. Thus targeted to provide support for them and indirectly reduce the concerns of the rescue workers. From February 27 to March 1, 2020, we used the scales of Perceived Stress Scale, 10-items Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale, Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7, Patient Health Questionnaire-2, and primary care-posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) to evaluate the mental health level of the family members of front-line rescue workers online. Six hundred and seventy one family members voluntarily filled out the questionnaire after reading the purpose of the study. A total of 671 family members of front-line rescue workers participated in the survey, including 194 husbands/wives, 52 parents, 49 children, 76 brothers and sisters, and 300 other relationships. Among them, 55% of the family members reported sleep problems, 49.0% of the family members had mild, and above anxiety symptoms, 12.2% of the family members reported clinically significant depression symptoms, and 10.4% of the family members may have PTSD, 8.3% of family members had thoughts of self-injury or suicide. The feeling of stress was positively correlated with anxiety and depression, but there was no significant correlation between psychological elasticity and various symptoms. Family members who are more worried about the safety, physical condition and living security of front-line rescue workers are more likely to report symptoms such as sleep disorders, anxiety, and depression. Family members' first-line rescue has a significant impact on their daily life, raising children and supporting the elderly, which is also related to the occurrence of mental and psychological symptoms. During the period of front-line support, they received support from the units or organizations of the first-line workers, mainly including telephone greetings and daily necessities. The top three concerns about the information of the epidemic were the time of the end of the epidemic, the time of the return of the family and the progress of COVID-19's treatment. After the end of the epidemic, what they most want to do is to pay more attention to and accompany their families, family gatherings, and do more exercise. The psychological impact of this epidemic on the families of front-line rescue workers is mainly sleep problems and anxiety. The psychological intervention of family members should mainly start from the relief of stress and increase of material and spiritual support.
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Previous studies about the reliability and validity of the updated PCL version for the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual for Mental Disorders (PCL-5) have only been evaluated in certain samples of the population, which lacks in the sample of Healthcare Workers. Our study focused on the factor structure, reliability and validity of the PCL-5 among Chinese Healthcare Workers during the Outbreak of Corona Virus Disease 2019. METHODS: We conducted an online survey of frontline healthcare workers using the PCL-5 for PTSD. Total of 212 frontline healthcare providers were included in this study. RESULTS: The findings showed that PCL-5 is a reliable instrument in our sample. The total and subscale scores showed good internal consistency. The convergent and discriminant validity of the PCL-5 were also well demonstrated. Our result showed a better fit with the seven-factor hybrid model compared with other models and supported that the PCL-5 Chinese version can be used as a reliable screening tool to conduct psychological screening for Chinese healthcare workers. LIMITATION: We could not examine other aspects of reliability and validity like test-retest reliability or criterion validity. We didn't use the gold-standard structured interview for PTSD in our study. Besides, most of our samples were young people who had access to the internet. Not all professional levels and seniorities were presented because our sample had a lower mean income and educational level. CONCLUSION: Our study shows that the Chinese PCL-5 has good validity and reliability in frontline healthcare workers during the outbreak.