Elsevier has created a COVID-19 resource centre with free information in English and Mandarin on the novel coronavirus COVID-19. The COVID-19 resource centre is hosted on Elsevier Connect, the company's public news and information website. Elsevier hereby grants permission to make all its COVID-19-related research that is available on the COVID-19 resource centre-including this research content-immediately available in PubMed Central and other publicly funded repositories, such as the WHO COVID database with rights for unrestricted research re-use and analyses in any form or by any means with acknowledgement of the original source. These permissions are granted for free by Elsevier for as long as the COVID-19 resource centre remains active.

During the outbreak of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) all over the world, the mental health conditions of health care workers are of great importance to ensure the efficiency of rescue operations. The current study examined the effect of social support on mental health of health care workers and its underlying mechanisms regarding the mediating role of resilience and moderating role of age during the epidemic. MethodsSocial Support Rating Scale (SSRS), Connor-Davidson Resilience scale (CD-RISC) and Symptom Checklist 90 (SCL-90) were administrated among 1472 health care workers from Jiangsu Province, China during the peak period of COVID-19 outbreak. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to examine the mediation effect of resilience on the relation between social support and mental health, whereas moderated mediation analysis was performed by Hayes PROCESS macro. ResultsThe findings showed that resilience could partially mediate the effect of social support on mental health among health care workers. Age group moderated the indirect relationship between social support and mental health via resilience. Specifically, compared with younger health care workers, the association between resilience and mental health would be attenuated in the middle-aged workers. ConclusionsThe results add knowledge to previous literature by uncovering the underlying mechanisms between social support and mental health. The present study has profound implications for mental health services for health care workers during the peak period of COVID-19.

BackgroundA tendency to selectively process a threat to positive information may be involved in the etiology of anxiety disorders. The aim of this study is to examine whether attentional bias modification (ABM) can be used to modify high test-anxiety individuals’ attention to emotional information and whether this change is related to anxiety vulnerability.MethodsSeventy-seven undergraduates were included: 28 individuals received a 5-day modified dot probe task as ABM training, 29 individuals received a 5-day classic dot probe task as placebo, and 20 individuals did not receive an intervention between the two test sections. In addition to the measure of biased attention, salivary α-amylase (sAA) and the visual analogue scale of anxiety were assessed as emotional reactivity to stress.ResultsA repeated measurement of variance analysis and paired sample t-test indicated that the ABM group showed a significant change in attentional bias scores after the 5-day training, whereas there were no changes in the attentional bias scores in the placebo or waiting list groups. Importantly, anxiety vulnerability with attention to threats was significantly decreased in the training group.ConclusionsThese results suggest that attentional bias toward threat stimuli may play an important role in anxiety vulnerability. The attentional bias modification away from the threat is effective for the individuals preparing for an exam.Trial registrationThis trial was retrospectively registered on June 22, 2017 with the registration number ChiCTR-IOR-17011745 and the title ‘Attentional Bias in high anxiety individuals and its modification’.

Elsevier has created a COVID-19 resource centre with free information in English and Mandarin on the novel coronavirus COVID-19. The COVID-19 resource centre is hosted on Elsevier Connect, the company's public news and information website. Elsevier hereby grants permission to make all its COVID-19-related research that is available on the COVID-19 resource centre-including this research content-immediately available in PubMed Central and other publicly funded repositories, such as the WHO COVID database with rights for unrestricted research re-use and analyses in any form or by any means with acknowledgement of the original source. These permissions are granted for free by Elsevier for as long as the COVID-19 resource centre remains active.

BackgroundEpidemiological studies have repeatedly investigated the association between anxiety and hypertension. However, the results have been inconsistent. This study aimed to summarize the current evidence from cross-sectional and prospective studies that evaluated this association.MethodsSeven common databases were searched for articles published up to November 2014. Cross-sectional and prospective studies that reported an association between the two conditions in adults were included. Data on prevalence, incidence, unadjusted or adjusted odds ratios or hazard ratios, and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were extracted or calculated by the authors. The pooled odds ratio was calculated separately for cross-sectional and prospective studies using random-effects models. The Q test and I 2 statistic was used to assess heterogeneity. A funnel plot and modified Egger linear regression test were used to estimate publication bias.ResultsThe search yielded 13 cross-sectional studies (n=151,389), and the final pooled odds ratio was 1.18 (95% CI 1.02–1.37; PQ<0.001; I2=84.9%). Eight prospective studies with a total sample size of 80,146 and 2,394 hypertension case subjects, and the pooled adjusted hazard ratio was 1.55 (95% CI 1.24–1.94; PQ<0.001; I2=84.6%). The meta-regression showed that location, diagnostic criteria for anxiety, age, sex, sample size, year of publication, quality, and years of follow-up (for prospective study) were not sources of heterogeneity.ConclusionOur results suggest that there is an association between anxiety and increased risk of hypertension. These results support early detection and management of anxiety in hypertensive patients.