Objective To understand the emotional characteristics of the frontline healthcare workers during the outbreak of COVID-19, and provide a basis for formulating psychological intervention programs.
Methods On this cross-sectional study, from Jan 17 to Feb 3, 2020, a questionnaire which contained general status, State-Trait Anxiety Inventory(STAI) and Self-Rating Depression Scale(SDS) was distributed to the first group of healthcare workers fighting against COVID-19 in the Fifth Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University for testing,, and its characteristics were analyzed by one-sample t-test, independent-sample t-test, one-way analysis of variance and analysis of covariance.
Results 248 valid questionnaires were collected,156 healthcare workers were tested as the non-contact group before contacting patients or specimens such as blood, urine, and stool, and 92 healthcare workers were tested as the contact group within two weeks after contacting patients or specimens.. The results showed thatthe positive detection rates of SDS, S-AI, and T-AI in the non-contact group were 28.85% (45/156), 17.95% (28/156), and 5.77% (9/156) respectively, while those in the contact group were 18.48% (17/92), 20.65% (19/92), 6.52% (6/92), there was no statistically significant difference in positive detection rate of SDS, S-AI, or T-AI (P>0.05). The T-AI and SDS scores of the original infection department healthcare workers in the contact group were lower than those in the non-contact group, and the difference was statistically significant (P<0.05). The S-AI score of female healthcare workers in the non-contact group was (44.85±11.58) points, and in the contact group was (45.28±10.97) points, which were compared with domestic adult female norms [(38.97±8.45) points], the differences were statistically significant (P<0.01).
Conclusion In terms of major new infectious diseases, there is little psychological impact on the full-time frontline healthcare workers in the infection department who originally engaged in the prevention and control of infectious diseases. We should pay more attention to the emotional changes of female and frontline healthcare workers from non-infectious departments. |