Increased stressful impact among general population in mainland China amid the COVID-19 pandemic: A nationwide cross-sectional study conducted after Wuhan city’s travel ban was lifted

Abstract

Objectives: Our study aimed to determine the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on psychological responses and lifestyle changes among the general population in mainland China following the re-opening of the Wuhan city. Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted in April 2020. Participants of Chinese nationality aged ⩾ 18 years were asked to complete a modified validated Chinese version of a questionnaire regarding the impact of event scale (IES), family and social support, mental health–related lifestyle changes, and indicators of negative mental health impacts. Results: A total of 728 participants (i.e., 217 males and 511 females) completed the questionnaire. The mean age of the participants was 32.9 ± 10.4 years, with a majority of them (92.2%) having a higher educational qualification level. The overall mean IES in participants was 21.5 ± 7.0, reflecting mild stressful impact (i.e., following the re-opening of the Wuhan city); 25.5% of the participants had an IES score ⩾ 26. Being females and married were significantly associated with a higher mean IES score. The overall mean scores for intrusion and avoidance score scales in participants were 9.4 ± 3.7 and 12.1 ± 4.2, respectively. Conclusions: The COVID-19 pandemic was associated with increased stressful impact in our participants following the re-opening of the Wuhan city when compared with our previous study, which should not be taken lightly.

Evaluation of lifestyle, attitude and stressful impact amid COVID-19 among adults in Shanghai, China

“…According to our study, 68.4% of the participants with the IES score ≥26 showed a moderate-tosevere stressful impact, which was much higher than our previous studies (Ma et al 2020;Zhang and Ma 2020a). In addition, in our study, females were reported to more likely experience psychological impact caused by the COVID-19 pandemic than males.…”

“…Additionally, participants also were asked to complete six validated and modified questions with a Cronbach's alpha of 0.88, which were used to indicate the changes of stress from work and family, financial pressure, panic feeling, anxiety and helplessness due to the COVID-19 pandemic (answer options: much decreased, decreased, unchanged, increased and much increased) (Ma et al 2020;Zhang and Ma 2020a).…”

“…Coronavirus diseases 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), is a pandemic disease which was first reported in Wuhan, China in December 2019 (Zhou et al 2020). The COVID-19 pandemic has continued to significantly debilitate the public health and economy (Ma et al 2020;Ma 2020a, 2020b). Due to the rapid spreading of this virus, Wuhan was lockdown since 23 January 2020 and more restrictive measures including quarantine have been extended to different provinces and cities including Shanghai by the Chinese government.…”

“…Moreover, increased family and finance stress were also associated with stressful impact during the pandemic period during the SARS outbreak period (Lau et al 2005b). Although there have been some studies investigating the physiological impact caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, limited studies have focused on its impact among urban residents (Chew et al 2020;Hao et al 2020;Ma et al 2020;Tan et al 2020;Zhang and Ma 2020a;Wang et al 2020c). Today, there are >50% of the global population who live in cities and the population density in cities is expected to continue growing.…”

Attitudes towards Wildlife Consumption inside and outside Hubei Province, China, in Relation to the SARS and COVID-19 Outbreaks

“…The World Health Organization (WHO) recorded >8400 cases of SARS and 800 deaths worldwide (Zhong et al 2003). The COVID-19 outbreak has also led to serious consequences including unprecedented levels of infection and deaths, decreased quality of life, and increased stress due to strict lockdowns and limits on social interactions (Cao et al 2020;Ma et al 2020;Zhang and Ma 2020a,b). In mainland China, the number of diagnosed patients from 21st January 2020 until 2nd February 2020 increased from 330 cases to 17,000 cases within two weeks (Dong et al 2020).…”