Status quo and influencing factors of post-traumatic stress disorder among front-line anti-epidemic medical staff

ABSTRACT

[Background] Front-line medical staff are an important group in fighting against Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19), and their mental health should not be ignored. [Objective] This study investigates the current situation and influencing factors of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among front-line anti-epidemic medical staff during COVID-19 epidemic. [Methods] Medical staff who had participated in fighting against the COVID-19 epidemic wereselected from three grade III Class A hospitals and four grade II Class A hospitals in a city of Hubei Province by convenient sampling method in May 2020. The survey was conducted online using the Post-traumatic Stress Checklist-Civilian Version (PCL-C) as the main survey tool to investigate current situation and characteristics of PTSD among these participants. A total of 1120 questionnaires were collected, of which 1071 were valid, and the effective rate was 95.6%. [Results] Of the 1071 participants, the average age was (32.59+/-5.21) years;the ratio of male to female was 1 5.02;the ratio of doctor to nurse was 15.8;nearly 70% participants came from grade III Class A hospitals;married participants accounted for 75.4%;most of them held a bachelor degree or above (86.5%);members of the Communist Party of China (CPC) accounted for 22.9%;50.9% had junior titles;the working years were mainly 5-10 years (42.8%);more than 80.0% participants volunteered to join the front-line fight;95.1% participants received family support;43.0% participated in rescue missions;78.1% participants fought the epidemic in their own hospitals;more than 60% participants considered the workload was greater than before;34.4% participants fought in the front-line for 2-4 weeks, and 23.5% participants did for more than 6 weeks. There were 111 cases of positive PTSD syndromes (PCL-C total score >=38) with an overall positive rate of 10.4%, and the scores of reexperience [1.40 (1.00, 1.80)] and hypervigilance [1.40 (1.00, 2.00)] were higher than the score of avoidance [1.14 (1.00, 2.57)]. The results of univariate analysis revealed that PTSD occurred differently among participants grouped by age, political affiliation, working years, anti-epidemic activities location, accumulated working hours in fighting against COVID-19, having child parenting duty, voluntariness, family support, whether family members participated in front-line activities, and rescue mission assignment (P<0.05). The results of logistic regression analysis showed that the incidence rates of reporting PTSD syndromes in medical personnel aged 31-40 years (OR=0.346, 95%CI 0.164-0.730) and aged 41 years and above (OR=0.513, 95%CI 0.319-0.823) were lower than that in those aged 20-30 years;the incidence rates of reporting PTSD syndromes in medical staff who were CPC members (OR=0.499, 95%CI 0.274-0.909), volunteered to participate (OR=0.584, 95%CI 0.360-0.945), and received family support (OR=0.453, 95%CI 0.222-0.921) were lower than those did not (P<0.05);the incidence rates of reporting PTSD syndromes among medical workers who had child parenting duty (OR=2.372, 95%CI 1.392-4.042), whose family members participated in front-line activities (OR=1.709, 95%CI 1.135-2.575), and who participated in rescue missions (OR=1.705, 95%CI 1.133-2.565) were higher than those who did not (P<0.05). [Conclusion] The positive PTSD syndrome rate is 10.4% in the front-line anti-epidemic medical staff. Age, political affiliation, voluntariness, family support, having child parenting duty, with a family members participating in the fight, and rescue mission assignment are the influencing factors of PTSD.Copyright © 2021, Shanghai Municipal Center for Disease Control and Prevention. All rights reserved.