The prevalence and influencing factors for anxiety in medical workers fighting COVID-19 in China: A cross-sectional survey

摘要

Abstract: Background: The COVID-19 outbreak caused by the SARS-Cov-2 virus has been sustained in China since December 2019, and could become a pandemic if we do not contain it. The mental health of frontline medical staff is a concern. In this study, we aimed to identify the influencing factors on medical worker anxiety in China during the COVID-19 outbreak. Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional study to estimate the prevalence of anxiety among medical staff from 10th February 2020 to 20th February 2020 in China using the Zung Self-rating Anxiety Scale (SAS) to assess anxiety, using the criteria of normal (≤49), mild (50-59), moderate (60-70) and severe anxiety (≥70). We used multivariable linear regression to determine the factors (e.g., having direct contact treating infected patients, being a medical staff worker from Hubei province, being a suspect case) for anxiety. We also used adjusted models to confirm independent factors for anxiety after adjusting for gender, age, education and marital status. Results: Of 512 medical staff from China, 164 healthcare workers (32.03%) had had direct contact by treating infected patients. The prevalence of anxiety was 12.5%, with 53 workers suffering from mild (10.35%), seven workers from moderate (1.36%) and four workers from severe anxiety (0.78%). After adjusting for sociodemographic characteristics (gender, age, education and marital status), medical staff who had had direct contact treating infected patients saw higher anxiety scores than those who had not had direct contact (βvalue=2.33, CI: 0.65 -4.00; p=0.0068). Similar things were observed in medical staff from Hubei province, compared with those from other parts of China (βvalue=3.67, CI: 1.44 -5.89; p=0.0013). The most important variable was suspect cases with high anxiety scores, compared to non-suspect cases (βvalue=4.44, CI: 1.55 -7.33; p=0.0028). Conclusion: Our results highlight that government authorities should make early detection of the high risk of anxiety among medical staff a priority, and implement appropriate psychological intervention programs, to prevent medical staff from developing psychological disorders that could potentially exert an adverse effect on combating the COVID-19 epidemic.### Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.### Funding StatementThis research received no specific grant from any funding agency, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. No sponsors had any role in the design, methods, subject recruitment, data collections, analysis or preparation of this manuscript.### Author DeclarationsAll relevant ethical guidelines have been followed; any necessary IRB and/or ethics committee approvals have been obtained and details of the IRB/oversight body are included in the manuscript.YesAll necessary patient/participant consent has been obtained and the appropriate institutional forms have been archived.YesI understand that all clinical trials and any other prospective interventional studies must be registered with an ICMJE-approved registry, such as ClinicalTrials.gov. I confirm that any such study reported in the manuscript has been registered and the trial registration ID is provided (note: if posting a prospective study registered retrospectively, please provide a statement in the trial ID field explaining why the study was not registered in advance).YesI have followed all appropriate research reporting guidelines and uploaded the relevant EQUATOR Network research reporting checklist(s) and other pertinent material as supplementary files, if applicable.YesThe data can be obtained by some research applying for study