Risk Perception and PTSD Symptoms of Medical Staff Combating Against COVID-19: A PLS Structural Equation Model

Abstract

Medical staff were battling against coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) at the expense of their physical and mental health, particularly at risk for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). In this case, intervening PTSD of medical staff and preparing them for future outbreaks are important. Previous studies showed that perceived stress was related to the development of PTSD. Hence, in this study, the association between risk perception of medical staff and PTSD symptoms in COVID-19 and the potential links were explored. Three hundred four medical staff's exposure to COVID-19 patients, risk perception for working during COVID-19, PTSD symptoms, anxiety, and sleep quality were measured. Mediation analysis tested the indirect effects of anxiety and sleep quality on the relationship between risk perceptions and PTSD symptoms; 27.6% of participants were deemed as having probable PTSD diagnosis. Mediation analysis showed a significant chain-mediating effect of anxiety and sleep quality on the relationships between risk perceptions and PTSD symptoms; higher risk perceptions were related to increased anxiety, worsened sleep quality, and severe PTSD symptoms. Conclusively, medical staff have a high prevalence of PTSD symptoms after 3 months of COVID-19. Their PTSD symptoms were associated with the perceived risk level through the potential links with anxiety and sleep quality. Therefore, risk perception could be critical for our medical staff's responses to public health emergencies. It could be plausible to intervene in the perceived stress to alleviate aroused anxiety and improve sleep quality and thereby deter the development of PTSD.

Impact of COVID-19 on psychological wellbeing

“…The purpose of this study is three-fold: (1) to record PTS and PTG of the general population due to COVID-19; (2) to explore the predictors of PTS and PTG, including the basic demographic information (e.g., sex and education), COVID-19 pandemic-related information (e.g., diagnosis and quarantine), psychological and physical reactions to COVID-19 (e.g., avoidance and insomnia), and on-the-spot mood (e.g., happy or sad on the testing day); (3) to examine the underlying relationship between PTS and PTG after the above predictors were controlled (i.e., hierarchical regression analyses). Referencing the previous publications, we predicted that being female (e.g., Liu et al, 2020 ), low-educated (e.g., L. Liang et al, 2020 ), quarantined (e.g., Wathelet et al., 2021 ), diagnosed with COVID-19 (e.g., Xiao et al, 2020 ), and clinical workers (e.g., Blekas et al, 2020 ), and having negative psychological or physical reactions to the pandemic (e.g., Yin et al, 2021 ) could all be stressors of PTS. More importantly, anticipating a ‘phoenix renascence’ ( Tamiolaki & Kalaitzaki, 2020 ), we propose a mutual positive prediction between the PTS and the PTG.…”

“…Second, whether the relationship between age and PTS is linear as for COVID-19 should be questioned. Third, it was found that perceived risk (e.g., feeling unsafe), negative mood (e.g., anxiety), adverse physical reactions (e.g., insomnia), as well as PTS were locked in a vicious circle for clinical workers combating COVID-19 ( Yin et al, 2021 ). However, whether this strong linkage can be generalized to the general population is indeterminate.…”

Risk Perception, Perception of Collective Efficacy and Sleep Quality in Chinese Adults During COVID-19 Pandemic in Hong Kong: A Cross-sectional Study

“…Taken together, preexisting research studying the link between COVID-19 risk perception and sleep quality has focused solely on healthcare workers or medical staff [11,24]. This study was among the first to test the link between COVID-19 risk perception and sleep quality in the general population in Hong Kong, China.…”

“…The literature on risk perception suggests that risk perception consists of cognitive and affective components: The cognitive component refers to the perceived likelihood of oneself or others contracting the virus, whereas the affective component refers to experienced worries about developing disease [7,9]. However, only a handful of studies have examined the link between COVID-19 risk perception and sleep quality: to our knowledge, all the previous investigations focused on solely medical staff and healthcare workers [10,11]. For instance, Yin et al (2021) reported that medical staff who perceived higher risk of contracting COVID-19 at work also had poorer sleep quality [11].…”

“…However, only a handful of studies have examined the link between COVID-19 risk perception and sleep quality: to our knowledge, all the previous investigations focused on solely medical staff and healthcare workers [10,11]. For instance, Yin et al (2021) reported that medical staff who perceived higher risk of contracting COVID-19 at work also had poorer sleep quality [11]. Because sleep requires a loss of awareness, heightened risk perception in a public crisis may threaten people's sense of safety and interfere their sleep.…”