A study on mental health status among the staff in a designated hospital for COVID- 19 (preprint)

Background: We investigate the mental health status of all the staff members who worked for the designated hospital during the initial stage of COVID-19, so as to understand the severity of mental health problems, and analyze the risk factors.Methods: Through the patients health questionnaire-9(PHQ-9) and panic disorder severity scales(PDSS), we surveyed the status of depression and panic disorder of the staff who participated in the prevention and treatment of COVID-19 in designated hospital in the early stage of epidemic. The data is described by the number of cases (percentage), median and interquartile range. The chi square test was used for categorical variables and the rank sum test was used for continuous variables. The risk factors of severe depression or panic disorder were analyzed by binary logistic regression test.Results: Totally 702 questionnaires were sent out and 694(98.9%) was received and qualified, the median score of PHQ-9 among all the staff was 1 (IQR,0-4), 143(20.6%) of them had depression, 39 (5.6%) had serious depression; the median score of PDSS was 2 (IQR,0-5), 81 (11.7%) of them had panic disorder and 47(6.7%) of them had severe panic disorder; Among the people in different work lines, the first-line staff scored the highest: PHQ-9 score was 4 (0-8); PDSS score was 4 (1-9), which were significantly higher than the second-line and third-line staff (P<0.001). Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that the adjusted risk of severe depression in first-line staff was 6.63 fold(P < 0.001); the risk of severe panic disorder was 2.62 fold (P=0.003) higher than that of non-first line group.Conclusions: Many staff in the designated hospital for COVID-19 have mental health problems. Among them, first-line workers are a high-risk group with severe depression and panic disorder, and further psychological intervention is needed for them.

The Value of Employee Satisfaction in Disastrous Times: Evidence from COVID-19 (preprint)

Employee treatment is a dilemma for many business owners and executives: while everyone prefers a pleasant working environment, satisfying employee needs can be costly to shareholders. Given such costs, is it still worthwhile to make employees happy on a daily basis? This study provides evidence supporting a positive answer: firms with more satisfactory employees heading into the COVID-19 withstand the crisis better according to stock price reaction. Such outperformance by high-employee-satisfaction firms is more pronounced for financially weaker firms, for knowledge-based industries, and for FinTech-developed cities. Moreover, the result is not driven by state ownership, information asymmetry, or insider propping. Our findings show the importance of employee morale during crisis period and that firms can do well by doing good.

Multiple Negative of RT-PCR Testing of COVID-19 Pneumonia: A Case Report (preprint)

Background: Since the 2019 novel coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China in 2019, there have been a few reports of multiple negative of RT-PCR tests in patients infected by 2019 novel coronavirus.Case presentation: The patient was a 64-year-old man with fever. His son returned from Hubei 17 days before the patient had fever. Ancillary examinations indicated a decreased lymphocyte count and ground-glass opacities in lung. However, the first five reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction tests of 2019 novel coronavirus were negative until the sixth turned to positive.Conclusion: when epidemiological history, clinical manifestation and imaging are highly suggestive of COVID-19 Pneumonia, we should repeat reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction tests and treat patients in isolation.