Introduction
The novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) was first reported in Wuhan,
China in December, 2019(Li et al., 2020). After a latent period of 1-14
days (mostly 3-7 days), most patients infected with
COVID-19 had clinical manifestations
of fever, dry cough, and fatigue (Lu et al., 2020). Due to the
person-to-person transmission via respiratory droplets when patients
coughed or sneezed and close contact (Khan et al., 2020), the COVID-19
outbreak rapidly across China (Lijun et al., 2020). As to April 4, 2020,
source told by the National Health Commission of China, the cumulative
number of confirmed patients was up to 82,798 (50,333 in Wuhan),
including 4,632 deaths (3,869 in Wuhan) (National Health Commission of
the People’s Republic of China, 2020). Meanwhile, the virus erupted in
other countries which causing outbreak globally. The World Health
Organization released the latest situation report 1,051,635 confirmed
cases and 56,985 deaths on April 22, 2020 (World Health Organization,
2020).
Sustained growth of infections and death caused social fear and panic
(Bao et al., 2020). During the treatment, isolation made patients
gradually alienate to each other. On the other hand, uncertainty of
disease prognosis and the threat of death, psychological health problems
like depression or anxiety were more likely to occur and worsen (Xiao,
2020). A study found that COVID-19 confirmed patients suffered severe
mental distress even after rehabilitation and discharge (Bo et al.,
2020). These mental health problems may lead to some bad results, such
as reducing the quality of life and affecting work performance (Liu et
al., 2020). Previous studies showed that during the period of Severe
Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) outbreak in 2003, proportion of SARS
survivors in mental distress status was 9.8% in the beginning, what was
worse, it has increased to 25.6% after 30 months (Mak et al., 2009).
This reminded us paying attention to mental health of COVID-19
survivors, yet, recent studies mainly focused on medical treatment and
virus prevention.
Furthermore, healthcare workers rushing to rescue Wuhan also faced great
pressure, including high risk of infection, inadequate of personal
protection equipment, no specific medication, heavy workload, isolation,
negative emotions of patients, lack of contact with family members, and
fatigue (Chen et al., 2020). These acute conditions may lead to severe
psychological health status such as stress, anxiety, depression,
insomnia, and fear. These mental health problems will not only affect
the attention, understanding and decision-making ability of healthcare
workers, may hamper them from fighting against COVID-19, but also have a
lasting influence on their overall health (Greenberg et al., 2020).
Therefore, protecting the mental health of frontline healthcare workers
was of great significance to control the epidemic situation and their
own long-term health.
In view of the severe mental health problems, the National Health
Commission of China published guidelines for emergency psychological
intervention for COVID-19 survivors and healthcare workers (National
Health Commission of the People’s Republic of China, 2020). Specific
methods included establishment of psychological intervention working
groups, psychological assistance hotlines, online mental health
services, and so on (Chen et al., 2020; Lijun et al., 2020; Liu et al.,
2020). However, due to the unsatisfactory overall planning, lack of
communications among medical services and mental health institutions,
shortage of professional and experienced psychologists and psychiatrists
(Duan & Zhu, 2020), survivors and healthcare workers didn’t acquire
enough psychological support.
To solve the psychological health problems, we need to make clear of the
mental health status of COVID-19 survivors and healthcare workers, and
the impacting factors. The Symptom Check List 90 - Revised (SCL90-R)
questionnaire was a multidimensional self-reported symptom scale which
was used to estimate participants’ psychological status (Dudley et al.,
2020). Indeed, it was widely used in clinical research of medicine since
its naissance (Citkowska-Kisielewska et al., 2020). Therefore, we quoted
SCL90-R questionnaire to measure mental health status of survivors and
healthcare workers, which could provide valuable evidence for
psychological intervention among COVID-19 survivors and healthcare
workers.