Frontiers in Psychology (Mar 2022)

Study of Mental Health Status of the Resident Physicians in China During the COVID-19 Pandemic

  • Shuang-Zhen Jia,
  • Yu-Zhen Zhao,
  • Jia-Qi Liu,
  • Xu Guo,
  • Mo-Xian Chen,
  • Shao-Ming Zhou,
  • Jian-Li Zhou

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.764638
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 13

Abstract

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ObjectiveInvestigating the mental health status of Chinese resident physicians during the 2019 new coronavirus outbreak.MethodsA cluster sampling method was adopted to collect all China-wide resident physicians during the epidemic period as the research subjects. The Symptom Checklist-90 self-rating scale was used to assess mental health using WeChat electronic questionnaires.ResultsIn total, 511 electronic questionnaires were recovered, all of which were valid. The negative psychological detection rate was 93.9% (480/511). Among the symptoms on the self-rating scale, more than half of the Chinese resident physicians had mild to moderate symptoms of mental unhealthiness, and a few had asymptomatic or severe unhealthy mental states. In particular, the detection rate of abnormality was 88.3% (451/511), obsessive-compulsive symptoms was 90.4% (462/511), the sensitive interpersonal relationship was 90.6% (463/511), depression abnormality was 90.8% (464)/511), anxiety abnormality was 88.3% (451/511), hostility abnormality was 85.3% (436/511), terror abnormality was 84.9% (434/511), paranoia abnormality was 86.9% (444/511), psychotic abnormalities was 89.0% (455/511), and abnormal sleeping and eating status was 90.8% (464/511). The scores of various psychological symptoms of pediatric resident physicians were significantly lower than those of non-pediatrics (p < 0.05).ConclusionThe new coronavirus epidemic has a greater impact on the mental health of Chinese resident physicians.

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