A COVID-19 descriptive study of life after lockdown in Wuhan, China

Abstract

On 8 April 2020, the Chinese government lifted the lockdown and opened up public transportation in Wuhan, China, the epicentre of the COVID-19 pandemic. After 76 days in lockdown, Wuhan residents were allowed to travel outside of the city and go back to work. Yet, given that there is still no vaccine for the virus, this leaves many doubting whether life will indeed go back to normal. The aim of this research was to track longitudinal changes in motivation for self-isolating, life-structured, indicators of well-being and mental health after lockdown was lifted. We have recruited 462 participants in Wuhan, China, prior to lockdown lift between 3 and 7 April 2020 (Time 1), and have followed up with 292 returning participants between 18 and 22 April 2020 (Time 2), 284 between 6 and 10 May 2020 (Time 3), and 279 between 25 and 29 May 2020 (Time 4). This four-wave study used latent growth models to examine how Wuhan residents' psychological experiences change (if at all) within the first two months after lockdown was lifted. The Stage 1 manuscript associated with this submission received in-principle acceptance (IPA) on 2 June 2020. Following IPA, the accepted Stage 1 version of the manuscript was preregistered on the OSF at https://osf.io/g2t3b. This preregistration was performed prior to data analysis. Generally, our study found that: (i) a majority of people still continue to value self-isolation after lockdown was lifted; (ii) by the end of lockdown, people perceived gradual return to normality and restored structure of everyday life; (iii) the psychological well-being slightly improved after lockdown was lifted; (iv) people who used problem solving and help-seeking as coping strategies during lockdown had better well-being and mental health by the end of the lockdown; (v) those who experienced more disruptions in daily life during lockdown would display more indicators of psychological ill-being by the end of the lockdown.

Learning from previous lockdown measures and minimising harmful biopsychosocial consequences as they end: A systematic review

“…Conversely, symptoms of stress, anxiety, and depression in a study of Chinese students decreased during national lockdown, and subsequently increased after measures were removed [ 23 ]. Minimal changes to psychological well-being were described by Zhou et al six weeks after national lockdown ended in China [ 58 ].…”

Modeling the effect of lockdown timing as a COVID-19 control measure in countries with differing social contacts

“…China was the first country that implemented a regional lockdown of cities in Hubei province as a control measure. The largest city in Hubei province is Wuhan with a population of over 14 million people which used a full lockdown that lasted 76-days 10 .…”

Depression and Creativity During COVID-19: Psychological Resilience as a Mediator and Deliberate Rumination as a Moderator

“…According to the World Health Organization, COVID-19 may persist for a long time. As the pandemic has worsened, governments have locked downed cities and decreed social-isolation measures for residents ( Zhou et al, 2020 ), which has increased the risk of people developing psychological disorders. A survey of 1,770 Chinese citizens showed a 47.1% prevalence of depression and an 18.2% prevalence of major depressive symptoms due to social isolation and other reasons ( Ran et al, 2020 ).…”