Prevalence and risk for symptoms of PTSD among survivors of a COVID-19 infection

Abstract

COVID-19 pandemic has profound psychological effects worldwide and the psychological sequelae will persist for a long time among COVID-19 survivors. This cross-sectional study aimed to explore the prevalence of PTSD and its associated risk factors in COVID-19 survivors of the first wave pandemic. Demographics questionnaire, the Impact of Events Scale-Revised, the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index, the Fatigue Scale-14, the Resilience Style Questionnaire, the Short Version of COVID-19 Stigma Scale, the Peace of Mind Scale, and the Perceived Social Support Questionnaire were used to collect relevant information of the participants. The propensity score-matching (PSM) method was employed to adjust covariate or confounding variables in order to derive more accurate conclusions. After PSM, adjusted odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals were determined by binary conditional logistic regression. A total of 1541 COVID-19 survivors were included firstly and 15.2% reported PTSD symptoms, 1108 participants left after PSM. Four risk factors were identified: higher severity of COVID-19 infection, fatigue, COVID-19 related stigma and poor sleep quality. When designing psychological interventions to alleviate PTSD symptoms of COVID-19 survivors, reducing stigma and fatigue, and improve their sleep quality are suggested.

Keywords: COVID-19; PTSD; Risk factors; Stigma; Survivors.

Fig. 1

Plot of propensity score matched in this study. (a) Histograms of the propensity score distribution for the unmatched participants. (b) Histograms of the propensity score distribution for the matched participants. (c) Dot-plot for Standardized Mean Differences of PTSD symptoms. Note: The plots were created via R package “MatchIt”.

Fig. 2

Risk factors for PTSD symptoms in COVID-19 survivors. Note: The plot was created via R package “forestplot”.