Objective: To investigate the mental illness and correlated factors of primary medical staff during the COVID-19 outbreak in Hefei city, China.
Methods: A total of 180 primary medical staff were randomly selected from seven community hospitals in Hefei Economic and Technological Development Zone as a study group. One hundred and eighty-two health people were recruited as the control group. The self-rating Anxiety Scale (SAS), self-rating Depression Scale (SDS) and Psychological questionnaire of public health emergencies were distributed to them for evaluation.
Results: The score of SAS, SDS in study group was higher than that in control group [(35.57± 10.39) vs (31.31± 7.98); (44.16± 8.46) vs (41.47± 9.47)] (t =4.371, P < 0.001; t =2.849, P =0.005). The fear subscale and total score in the psychological questionnaire of sudden public health events were negatively correlated with age (r =− 0.216, P =0.004; r =− 0.154, P =0.039). Marriage was negatively correlated with depression subscales in psychological questionnaires of SAS, SDS and sudden public health events (r =− 0.184, P =0.013; r =− 0.298, P < 0.001; r =− 0.161, P =0.031; r =− 0.147, P =0.049). Education level was positively correlated with the total score of a psychological questionnaire for sudden public health events (r =0.151, P =0.043); Logistic regression analysis showed that marital status was a protective factor of psychological abnormality.
Conclusion: It is necessary to pay attention to the psychological status of primary medical staff, especially the young unmarried medical staff.
Keywords: novel coronavirus pneumonia, doctor, nurse, anxiety, depressed