Study on the public psychological states and its related factors during the outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in some regions of China

Abstract

Background: As COVID-19 occurs suddenly and is highly contagious, this will inevitably cause people anxiety, depression, etc. The study on the public psychological states and its related factors during the COVID-19 outbreak is of practical significance. Methods: 600 valid questionnaires were received. The Self-Rating Anxiety Scale (SAS) and the Self-Rating Depression Scale (SDS) were used. Results: Females' anxiety risk was 3.01 times compared to males (95% CI 1.39-6.52). Compared with people below 40 years old, the anxiety risk of people above 40 years old was 0.40 times (95% CI 0.16-0.99). SDS results indicated that the difference between education level and occupation was statistically significant (p = 0.024, 0.005). Compared to people with a master's degree or above, those with a bachelor's degree group had a depression risk of 0.39 times (95% CI 0.17-0.87). Compared with professionals, industrial service workers and other staff had a depression risk of 0.31 times (95% CI 0.15-0.65) and 0.38 times (95% CI 0.15-0.93). Conclusions: 600 questionnaire participants were psychologically stable. Non-anxiety and non-depression rates were 93.67% and 82.83%, respectively. There were anxiety in 6.33% and depression in 17.17%. Therefore, we should pay attention to the psychological states of the public.

Keywords: COVID-19; anxiety; depression; public psychological states; related factors.