Effect of WeChat consultation group on residents staying at home in Sichuan and Chongqing regions during the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak in China: a cross-sectional study

Abstract

Background After the outbreak of Coronavirus in Wuhan, Hubei, in 2019, the disease rapidly spread to other parts of China as well as outside of China. Since the pandemic outbreak, the general public has been responsive to the national call to stay at home in quarantine. However, since doubts and anxiety related to the disease have been detected in the general public, in this study, we established the WeChat platform “Coronavirus Disease 2019 Voluntary Assistance Group in Sichuan and Chongqing regions” in January 2020, which was committed to providing professional consultation and psychological counseling services for residents in Sichuan and Chongqing during the Coronavirus Disease 2019 outbreak. Our aim was to analyze the consultation practices of residents in the WeChat assistance group and provide a reference for the similar “non-contact” voluntary service platforms aiming to implement consultations during the late pandemic period. Methods A cross-sectional study was conducted using the records containing the consultation content from the WeChat assistance groups in Sichuan and Chongqing between January 30 and March 1, 2020. Data on consultation content, changes in a number of consultation items, answers, knowledge on popular science, and expert advice were summarized, and the Pareto chart was used to analyze the primary and secondary factors of consultation content. Results The constituent ratio of “respiratory symptoms, masks, and disinfection” in consultation content ranked as the top three factors. Cumulatively, they occupied 49.77% of the content, thus resulting as the primary factors in the consultation content. The number of consultation items suddenly increased from 10 on the first day to 116 on the 7th day, resulting in a 1060% increased rate. There were 151 consultation factors, among which 130 (86.1%) were related to the Coronavirus Disease 2019, and 21 (13.9%) were unrelated to the Coronavirus Disease 2019. Conclusion WeChat groups may be used as an effective means for providing assistance services for the public during the Coronavirus Disease 2019 outbreak.

Clinical Features of Suspected Malignant Hyperthermia in China from 2015 to 2020: A Retrospective Study from China Malignant Hyperthermia Emergency Assistance Group

“…WeChat app is one of the important Chinese communication tools for health education in the current “non-contact”, which has over 1 billion users in China and has the advantages of immediacy, interactivity, and convenience. 15 , 16 WeChat group can be understood as Chinese version of online Facebook chatting groups. Therefore, the first nonprofit academic organization China Malignant Hyperthermia Emergency Assistance WeChat-based Group (CMHEA Group) was established in 2015, dedicated to providing emergent professional consultation and assisting dantrolene mobilization for Chinese anesthesiologists in case of suspicious MH emergencies.…”

Social Isolation, Loneliness and Well-Being: The Impact of WeChat Use Intensity During the COVID-19 Pandemic in China

“…WeChat use can not only help an individual to enhance interpersonal interactions and social connections, and, through this, to improve their subjective well-being (He and Huang, 2020 ), but it may also increase one's loneliness due to the lack of face-to-face interpersonal interactions (Jiao, 2016 ). At the same time, through WeChat groups, professionals could provide professional consultation and psychological counseling services for home-quarantined people in the COVID-19 pandemic (Hu et al, 2020 ).…”

Does Rural Production–Living–Ecological Spaces Have a Preference for Regional Endowments? A Case of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei, China

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“…This method was originally used for the overall change process of soil structure when soil particle size changed gradually. It was later introduced by other disciplines, resulting in the innovative application of the Pareto curve [28]. Besides this, in order to explore the impact mechanism, regression models are also necessary.…”