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. 2025 Apr 14;25(1):377.
doi: 10.1186/s12888-025-06767-7.

Effect of insomnia on anxiety about COVID- 19 patients: the mediating role of psychological capital

Chun-Ni Heng #  1 , Juan Du #  2 , Ling Li  1 , Na Zhang  3 , Wei Jiang  4
Affiliations

Effect of insomnia on anxiety about COVID- 19 patients: the mediating role of psychological capital

Chun-Ni Heng et al. BMC Psychiatry. .

Abstract

Introduction: The outbreak of Corona Virus Disease (COVID- 19) in 2019 has continued until now, posing a huge threat to the public's physical and mental health, resulting in different degrees of mental health problems. Previous studies have shown that insomnia is one of the main influences on anxiety. However, due to the specificity of the disease and the situation of centralized treatment of COVID- 19 patients in mobile cabin hospitals, insomnia interventions are limited. Therefore, it is necessary to find the complex mediating variables between insomnia and anxiety to provide new ideas for the prevention and intervention of anxiety caused by insomnia in COVID- 19 patients.

Methods: The measurement tools were the Athens Insomnia Scale, Psychological Capital Questionna-ire, and Self-Rating Anxiety Scale. Statistical analysis was performed using SPSS 25.0 software, and a mediator model was established and corrected using Amos software.

Results: More than one in five patients in this study had anxiety, and the total score was significantly higher than the Chinese standard total score. Insomnia was positively correlated with anxiety, but negatively correlated with psychological capital; and psychological capital was negatively correlated with anxiety. Psychological capital can act as a mediating factor in the relationship between insomnia and anxiety. Psychological capital played a mediating role in the relationship between insomnia and anxiety among COVID- 19 patients, that is, insomnia not only directly affected anxiety, but also indirectly affected anxiety through the mediating role of psychological capital.

Conclusion: It is recommended that patients and health care professionals increase the psychological capital of COVID- 19 patients through various methods to counter the effects of insomnia on anxiety.

Keywords: Anxiety; Insomnia; Mediating effect; Mobile cabin hospital; Psychological capital; Sleep.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declarations. Ethics approval and consent to participate: The study was conducted by the Shanghai makeshift Hospital. The study was conducted in accordance with the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki. And was approved by the Hospital Institutional Review Board (IRB) before data collection for the trial registration name as TDLL- 202209–02 (Registration date 2022–09 - 07).Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study. This study was in accordance with the ethical standards formulated in the Declaration of Helsinki and approved by hospital’s Institutional Review Board (IRB) [No: TDLL- 202209–02] before data collection began. Consent for publication: Not applicable. Competing interests: The authors declare no competing interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
The model construction among the three variables Note: ***P < 0.00
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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