Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has impacted many aspects of people’s lives all over the world. This Facebook survey study aimed to investigate the COVID-19-related factors that were associated with sleep disturbance and suicidal thoughts among members of the public during the COVID-19 pandemic in Taiwan. The online survey recruited 1970 participants through a Facebook advertisement. Their self-reported experience of sleep disturbance and suicidal thoughts in the previous week were collected along with a number of COVID-19-related factors, including level of worry, change in social interaction and daily lives, any academic/occupational interference, levels of social and specific support, and self-reported physical health. In total, 55.8% of the participants reported sleep disturbance, and 10.8% reported having suicidal thoughts in the previous week. Multiple COVID-19-related factors were associated with sleep disturbance and suicidal thoughts in the COVID-19 pandemic. Increased worry about COVID-19, more severe impact of COVID-19 on social interaction, lower perceived social support, more severe academic/occupational interference due to COVID-19, lower COVID-19-specified support, and poorer self-reported physical health were significantly associated with sleep disturbance. Less handwashing, lower perceived social support, lower COVID-19-specified support, poorer self-reported physical health, and younger age were significantly associated with suicidal thoughts. Further investigation is needed to understand the changes in mental health among the public since the mitigation of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Background People obtain information on the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) from the internet and other sources. Understanding the factors related to such information sources aids health professionals in educating individuals. Objective This study used data collected from the online survey study on COVID-19 in Taiwan to examine what major COVID-19 information sources are available and which sources are significantly related to the self-confidence of people in coping with COVID-19 in Taiwan. Methods A total of 1904 participants (1270 non–health-care workers and 634 health care workers) were recruited from the Facebook advertisement. Their major sources of information about COVID-19, the relationships between the sources and demographic factors, and the relationships between the sources and the self-confidence in coping with COVID-19 were surveyed. Results Most Taiwanese people relied on the internet for COVID-19 information. Many respondents also used a variety of sources of information on COVID-19; such variety was associated with sex, age, and the level of worry toward COVID-19, as well as if one was a health care worker. For health care workers, the use of formal lessons as an information source was significantly associated with better self-confidence in coping with COVID-19. The significant association between receiving information from more sources and greater self-confidence was found only in health care workers but not in non–health-care workers. Conclusions Medical professionals should consider subgroups of the population when establishing various means to deliver information on COVID-19.

COVID-19-related information sources and psychological well-being: An online survey study in Taiwan Dear editors Timely and accurate information is foundational to mitigating and curing the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) for both the public and the scientific community (Hua and Shaw, 2020). Misinformation on COVID-19, however, has also been proliferating on the Internet, especially on social media (Bastani and Bahrami, 2020). Moreover, repeated media exposure to crisis-related information elevates anxiety and stress responses among people (Garfin et al., 2020). The public may also receive information on COVID-19 from medical staff and laypeople. We were interested in the associations between the COVID-19-related information sources and people's psychological well-being. We were also interested in whether the associations differed between health care workers and the public. The Online Survey Study on COVID-19 in Taiwan recruited participants who were ≥20 years old and lived in Taiwan through a Facebook advertisement on April 10 to April 20, 2020. We also posted the link of the Facebook advertisement to social media groups joined by health care workers. In the online survey, participants were asked whether they received COVID-19-related information frequently from the following sources: the Internet (including blogs, Internet news, and social media, such as Facebook, Line, Twitter, and Plurk), friends, traditional media (including television, newspapers, and radio broadcasting), formal lessons on COVID-19 (whether online or in-person), medical staff in health care settings, coworkers, and family members. We also assessed participants' level of subjective psychological wellbeing on a 5-point Likert scale from 1 (much worse) to 5 (much better) (Ko et al., 2006). In total, the data of 1904 respondents (1282 female and 622 male participants; mean age = 38.0 years and standard deviation [SD] = 10.8 years) were analyzed. The mean score for psychological well-being were 3.3 (SD = 0.9). The major source of information on COVID-19 was the Internet (80.6%), followed by traditional media (53.5%). The associations of each information source with psychological well-being were examined using multiple regression analyses to control for sex, age, education and worry about COVID-19. We found that for non-health-care workers, receiving COVID-19 information from the Internet and from medical staff was negatively and positively related with psychological well-being, respectively; both relationships were significant. For health care workers, receiving COVID-19 information from formal lessons was significantly positively related with psychological well-being. This study found that approximately 80% of participants received COVID-19 information online. The Internet makes information on COVID-19 more accessible, especially for those staying indoors due to the pandemic, with the websites of official public health organizations being the highest-quality source of online information on COVID-19 and how to prevent it (Hernández-García an...