Association Between Social Support and Perceived Stress: A Cross-Sectional Study on Staffs of the Epidemic Prevention During the Covid-19 Epidemic in China

Abstract

Background: The Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) lockdown considerably affects people's life in China, both physically and mentally. Staffs of the epidemic prevention and control in the community have played an irreplaceable role during community lockdown period in Wuhan. However, few studies have focused on their health status during epidemic prevention. This study aimed to appraise the available evidence of health conditions of them and explore the influencing factors.

Method: Used a multistage sampling method, we conducted a survey in staffs of the epidemic prevention and control in the community (N = 503). Descriptive analysis was used to characterize the respondents. T-test and analysis of variance were for group differences analysis. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was used to verify the scale validity, correlation analysis and pathway analysis and Structural equation model (SEM) was used to study the relationship between stress perception, social support, mental resilience and sleep quality. Statistical analysis was performed with SPSS 26.0, R version 4.1.3 and Mplus 8.3.

Results: The mean Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) score of the respondents was 13.28 ± 7.31 and 51.1% had higher PSS score than the normal. In the absence of social support, people's sleeping quality and psychological resilience may decrease, their perceived stress may elevate and compromise mental health correspondingly. Social support could affect perceived stress directly, while Sleep quality and psychology resilience played significant partial mediating roles in social support affecting perceived stress. The mediating effects accounted for 50.8% of the total.

Conclusion: Staffs of the epidemic prevention and control in the community suffered from poor sleep quality and high level of stress perception. Establishment of good social support may effectively reduce their stress and this effect is mediated by sleep quality and psychological resilience. Physical health status would affect the staffs' mental health and they more attention should be paid to those with poor physical health.

Keywords: COVID-19; psychological resilience; sleep quality; social support; stress perception.