Mental health status among family members of health care workers in Ningbo, China during the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak: a Cross-sectional Study

Yuchen Ying; Fanqian Kong; Binbin Zhu; Yunxin Ji; Zhongze Lou; Liemin Ruan

The copyright holder for this preprint (which was not peer-reviewed) is the . https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.03.13.20033290 doi: medRxiv preprint both lower than levels reported for a total of 1563 medical staff in a previous study using the same assessment instrument and cut-off score as this study (44.7% and 50.7%) 26 . It worth nothing that this study was conducted in the early phase of COVID-19 epidemic when most of Chinese HCWs had been facing the most severe situation, which is causing extreme psychological response 19 . Comparing our current study data with similar studies conducted at the same designed-hospitals it was interesting to note that, family members of HCWs were more likely to develop GAD and depressive symptoms than HCWs (28.8% and 23.9%, respectively). Although one needs to be cautious when comparing data from different studies using inconsistent time frames and medical conditions, this finding does demonstrate, to some extent, that an extreme psychological impact in association with COVID-19 epidemic, also in family members of HCWs.