Prevalence and Associated Factors of PTSD Symptoms After the COVID-19 Epidemic Outbreak in an Online Survey in China: The Age and Gender Differences Matter.

Introduction: The COVID-19 is a highly contagious disease belonging to the family of coronaviruses which can affect a great deal of people shortly. As a devastating event in the world, many people suffer the PTSD from this severe disease. The aim of study is to explore the prevalence and severity of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms, and discuss the possible factors among the general public in China after the COVID-19 epidemic outbreak. Methods: This is a cross-sectional study. We used the self-designed demographic questionnaire and the Posttraumatic Stress Checklist-Civilian Version (PCL-C) of Chinese version as our screening tools to investigate 4872 subjects living in the communities in China from Nov. 8th, 2020 to Dec. 8th, 2020. Results: Finally, we received 3705 effective respondents. The response rates of the questionnaire can reach 76.97 percentage. Peculiarly, the prevalence of PTSD mild and severe symptoms after the COVID-19 epidemic outbreak was 53.2%. Mild PTSD symptoms accounted for 24.9%, and severe PTSD symptoms (scores above 38) accounted for 28.3%. PCL-C mean scores were 41.4±14.7. The females accounted for 67.7% of the total samples. Participants' mean age was 30.5±11.2 years old. The PCL-C gross scores of females were all higher than males in four subject groups. Meantime, gender and age made differences not only in total PCL-C points but also in the four aspects of PCL-C (P<0.001). The middle-aged group (ages from 45 to 60) got the lowest scores among the four groups. Conclusion: COVID-19 brought tremendous psychological pressure on the public in many ways, including people's work, social contact, study, and daily life. Results of our research discover that symptoms of the PTSD are severe, including the re-experiencing, avoidance/numbing, flashbacks, and hyper-arousal. Actions should be taken at society level to prevent and protect individuals from PTSD suffering. Special attention should be paid to females and young people. Further studies should be conducted to explore the dynamic and other risk and protection factors to prevent PTSD.

Expert consensus on protocol of rehabilitation for COVID-19 patients using framework and approaches of WHO International Family Classifications.

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has widely spread all over the world and the numbers of patients and deaths are increasing. According to the epidemiology, virology, and clinical practice, there are varying degrees of changes in patients, involving the human body structure and function and the activity and participation. Based on the World Health Organization (WHO) International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) and its biopsychosocial model of functioning, we use the WHO Family of International Classifications (WHO-FICs) framework to form an expert consensus on the COVID-19 rehabilitation program, focusing on the diagnosis and evaluation of disease and functioning, and service delivery of rehabilitation, and to establish a standard rehabilitation framework, terminology system, and evaluation and intervention systems based the WHO-FICs.