Prevalence and influencing factors of post-traumatic stress disorder among Chinese healthcare workers during the COVID-19 epidemic: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Min Zhang; Mingyu Bo; Huixin Wang; Wenyi Fan; Lingling Kong; Chunjie Zhou; Zhenxing Zhang

doi:10.3389/fpsyt.2024.1323111

Prevalence and influencing factors of post-traumatic stress disorder among Chinese healthcare workers during the COVID-19 epidemic: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Front Psychiatry. 2024 Feb 15:15:1323111. doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2024.1323111. eCollection 2024.

Authors

Min Zhang^#¹, Mingyu Bo^#¹, Huixin Wang¹, Wenyi Fan¹, Lingling Kong¹, Chunjie Zhou², Zhenxing Zhang²

Affiliations

¹ Department of Applied Psychology, Binzhou Medical University, Yantai, Shandong, China.
² School of Information and Electrical Engineering, Ludong University, Yantai, Shandong, China.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

Background: Post-traumatic stress disorder is an important psychological problem affecting the physical mental health of Chinese healthcare workers during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Aims: To estimate the prevalence and influencing factors of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among Chinese healthcare workers during COVID-19.

Methods: Search of Chinese and English literature in PubMed, EMbase, Web of Science, Medline, Elsevier, SpringerLink, China Biomedical Literature Database, CNKI, Wan-fang, and CQVIP for the period from December 2019 to August 2023. Stata 14.0 software was used for data analysis. The methodological quality of each study was scored, and data were extracted from the published reports. Pooled prevalence was estimated using the Random-effects model. Publication bias was evaluated using Egger's test and Begg's test.

Results: Twenty-one studies included 11841 Chinese healthcare workers in this review. First, the overall prevalence of Post-traumatic stress disorder among Chinese healthcare workers during the COVID-19 epidemic was 29.2% (95% CI: 20.7% to 33.7%). Twelve factors included in the meta-analysis were found to be protective against PTSD among Chinese healthcare workers: female, nurse, married, front-line work, less work experience, family or friend diagnosed with COVID-19, history of chronic disease and fear of COVID-19. Conversely, outside Hubei, higher education, social support and psychological resilience are protective factors.

Conclusion: These recent findings increase our understanding of the psychological status of Chinese healthcare workers and encourage that long-term monitoring and long-term interventions should be implemented to improve the mental health of Chinese healthcare workers in the aftermath of the COVID-19.

Keywords: COVID-19; healthcare workers; influencing factors; meta-analysis; post-traumatic stress disorder.

Publication types

Systematic Review

Grants and funding

The author(s) declare financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. Natural Science Foundation of Shandong Province (grant number: ZR2022MF292). Shandong Province Education Science Planning Project (grant number: 2020YB016). Shandong Province Education and Teaching Research Topic (grant number: 2023JXY026). Yantai Science and Technology Innovation Development Program (grant number: 2022XDRH005). Binzhou Medical University Social Science Development Fund Project.