Psychology Research and Behavior Management Dovepress open access to scientific and medical research Open Access Full Text Article ORIGINAL RESEARCH Psychological Impact of COVID-19 Cases on Medical Staff of Beijing Xiaotangshan Hospital This article was published in the following Dove Press journal: Psychology Research and Behavior Management Yuanbo Fu,1,* Mina Wang,1,2,* Purpose: To investigate the psychological impact of cases of coronavirus disease 19 Bingcong Zhao,1,* Baoli Liu,3 Jie (COVID-19) on medical staff of Beijing Xiaotangshan Hospital. Sun,4 Yaohui Feng,3 Zhengfang Methods: The 287 online questionnaires were distributed to medical staff working at Wang,3 Qian Li,3 Chunhong Shi,3 Beijing Xiaotangshan Hospital, comprising three main sections and 17 questions: basic Yabo Xuan,3 Siqi Long,3 Huan information, current departmental position, and the 12-item General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12). The threshold for emotional distress was defined to be a total score of 4 on the Liu,4 Tiange Chi,5 Zehuan GHQ-12 and above. Liao, 6,7 Bin Li,1 Qingquan Liu3 Results: A total of 255 members of medical staff participating in this study presented an 1The Department of Acupuncture and emotional distress rate of 17%. Members who were male, aged 50–59, married with children, Moxibustion, Beijing Hospital of Traditional positioned as doctors, and in administration were the population with the highest rate of Chinese Medicine, Capital Medical University, Beijing Key Laboratory of emotional distress. Furthermore, the severity of emotional distress among those under 30 was Acupuncture Neuromodulation, Beijing significantly lower than those aged 30–39 and 50–59. Doctors and other occupations shared 100010, People’s Republic of China; 2Beijing University of Chinese Medicine, Beijing a lower level of satisfaction on routine activities compared with nurses, so did staff in the 100029, People’s Republic of China; 3Beijing administration compared with those who were working in screening or logistic departments. Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Besides, males and staff of the confirmation department had more difficulty in concentrating Capital Medical University, Beijing 100010, People’s Republic of China; 4Beijing Xiao than females and those of the screening department, respectively. Tang Shan Hospital, Beijing 102200, People’s Conclusion: Medical staff working at Xiaotangshan Hospital underwent relatively low 5 Republic of China; The First Clinical Medical levels of emotional distress thanks to sufficient medical and psychological preparations. School, Beijing University of Chinese Medicine, Beijing 100029, People’s Republic However, special attention should be paid to those who were male, married with children, of China; 6School of Biological Sciences, senior, doctors, in administration, and in the confirmation department. Nanyang Technological University, Singapore 637551, Singapore; 7Department of Keywords: COVID-19, psychological impact, medical staff, Beijing, GHQ-12 Microbiology, Tumor and Cell Biology (MTC), Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm 17177, Sweden Introduction *These authors contributed equally to this work Coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19) is an emerging infectious viral disease caused by a Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS)-like coronavirus, and the typical symptoms of COVID-19 are fever, cough, and fatigue.1 The first COVID-19 out­ break occurred in Wuhan, China, and has caused serious damage worldwide.2 As of Correspondence: Bin Li May 30, 2020, more than 210 countries and regions have announced domestic cases Beijing Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Capital Medical University, of COVID-19, and there have been 5,934,936 confirmed cases globally, including Beijing Key Laboratory of Acupuncture 367,166 death cases.3 Despite a large number of epidemiological studies on Neuromodulation, No. 23 Gallery Street, Beijing 100010, People’s Republic of China COVID-19 being reported,1,4,5 relatively little information was available regarding Email [email protected] the psychological impact on medical staff on the frontline during the outbreak. Qingquan Liu Medical staff are fighters on the frontline who were exposed to and at high risk Beijing Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Capital Medical University, No. of being infected by COVID-19, on top of having long working hours and enor­ 23 Gallery Street, Beijing 100010, People’s mous stress. The taxing workload made it extremely difficult for them to meet the Republic of China Email [email protected] health standards, and the combination of physical and mental exhaustion can lead to submit your manuscript | www.dovepress.com Psychology Research and Behavior Management 2021:14 41–47 41 DovePress © 2021 Fu et al. This work is published and licensed by Dove Medical Press Limited. The full terms of this license are available at https://www.dovepress.com/terms.php http://doi.org/10.2147/PRBM.S287842 and incorporate the Creative Commons Attribution – Non Commercial (unported, v3.0) License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/). 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Fu et al Dovepress a more frequent occurrence of psychological problems.6 outbreak,18 to describe the mental impact of COVID-19 Previous studies on other infectious diseases (eg, SARS) on medical staff who worked at Beijing Xiaotangshan have demonstrated that medical staff experienced severe Hospital. emotional stress including burnout, traumatic experience, anxiety, depressive symptoms, and post-traumatic stress Methods disorder during and after the outbreak.7–10 During the outbreak of COVID-19, several studies aimed to detect Participants We distributed 287 self-administered questionnaires from the mental health of medical staff were also conducted, March 20 to March 29, 2020. The medical staff consisted stating that the medical staff suffered varying degrees of of three categories of occupation: doctors, nurses, and insomnia, fear, stress, anxiety, depression, somatization, others (pharmacists, medical imaging technologists, med­ and obsessive-compulsive symptoms, indicating targeted ical chemists, medical officers, cleaners, security guards, strategies toward improving the mental health should be etc.), and four departments: the confirmation department provided.11–15 (which treated confirmed cases), the screening department Beijing, the capital of China, faced great challenges in (which screened cases), administration, and the logistics preventing the resurgence of COVID-19 cases. On department. We sent out questionnaires online to ensure March 16, 2020, Beijing Xiaotangshan Hospital, employed the participation of all medical staff from different depart­ for quarantine during the SARS outbreak previously, was ments. Participation was strictly voluntary and anon­ renovated to be the designated hospital for the screening ymous. The purpose of this study was stated in the and treating of COVID-19 cases. Before the official introduction on the first page of the questionnaires, and reopening, Xiaotangshan Hospital had been entirely reno­ participants had to sign the online informed consent forms vated with more than 1,000 beds and sufficient medical before they answered the questions. All the questions were supplies.16 Meanwhile, Beijing authorities had arranged compulsory to ensure a complete set of answers from multiple training to enable all staff to scientifically under­ every participant. stand COVID-19. Doctors from the respiratory department would introduce the latest guidelines of COVID-19, as well as the management of respiratory diseases to medical Instrument staff from other departments. Then all the staff were sent The questionnaire contains three main sections and 17 to an isolation ward in Beijing Ditan Hospital (a hospital questions: basic information (gender, age, and marital for infectious diseases) to become familiar with the pro­ status), current departmental position (doctors, nurses, or cess of screening and treating patients with COVID-19. others; confirmation department, screening department, Additionally, peer support programs were set up to assist logistical department, or administration) at Xiaotangshan medical staff during the period of working at Hospital and a common scale. There are multiple scales Xiaotangshan Hospital, in which both superiors and col­ that have been used to assess the psychological health leagues were organized to provide a supportive institu­ during the COVID-19 outbreak, such as the Impact of tional response to address the feedback and needs from Events Scale,19 the Hospital Anxiety and Depression individuals, and acquaintances were distributed in the Scale,20 and the General Health Questionnaire-28.21 Due same medical group. Psychological counseling was also to the intensive schedule of medical staff, we only chose regularly provided by the psychologists before and during the GHQ-12 which has been used in various studies for medical staff working at Xiaotangshan Hospital. more than a decade. The GHQ-12 was designed by Researchers have pointed out that the lack of social Goldberg22 to detect non-specific psychiatric morbidity support and preventive strategies is a risk factor for mental by utilizing a 12-item self-assessment, and each