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Impact of COVID-19 pandemic

COVID-19 not only affects Chinese people's physical health, but also their mental health.

COVID-19 has a massive and pervasive impact, posing a threat to mental well-being, economic

stability, and normal day-to-day existence among the general population. There have been

reports of studies on the psychological effects of COVID-19 in the general population.

Furthermore, during the COVID-19 pandemic, Wang al. (2020) discovered that roughly 28.8%

of responders had considerable anxiety symptoms and 16.5 percent had moderate to severe

depressive symptoms. Moreover, according to another study, about 8.1, 28.8, and 16.5 percent of

participants exhibited clinical symptoms of stress, anxiety, and depression, with no significant

differences after four weeks of follow-up.

Additionally, other research had looked at the mental health consequences of other

epidemics (e.g., the 2003 Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), the 2009 H1N1

pandemic, and the 2014 Ebola epidemic). Pandemics can cause significant levels of stress, and

measures to prevent contamination, such as quarantine and social isolation, can exacerbate

mental health problems (Blakey et al., 2015; Bonanno et al., 2008; Cowling et al., 2010; Wu et

al., 2009). Similarly, during the COVID-19 outbreak in China, the general populace reported

moderate to severe psychological symptoms (Tian et al., 2020; Wang et al., 2020a; Wang et al.,

2020b). Only one study explored the change of mental health problem from the initial outbreak

phase (end of January) to the epidemic's peak or acute phase (end of February) in the general

public (n = 333) (Wang et al., 2020b). Furthermore, according to current research, during the

COVID-19 period, the prevalence of sleeplessness, depressed, and anxiety symptoms among

Chinese middle school pupils was 21.90 percent, 43.70 percent, and 37.40 percent, respectively
(Zhou, Want et al., 2020; Zhou, Zhang et al., 2020). Epidemiological evidence suggests that

approximately 5–12% of people may develop post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) after a

traumatic event (Ursano et al., 2009). The emergence of psychological issues produced by

COVID-19, particularly in youngsters, has been widely publicized (Dalton, Rapa, Stein, 2020).

Furthermore, during the COVID-19 pandemic, another systematic study discovered a

wide range of anxiety and depression prevalence rates in the general populace, ranging from 2.7

percent to more than 50 percent. Several researches have looked into the mental health

consequences of other epidemics (e.g., the 2003 Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS),

the 2009 H1N1 pandemic, and the 2014 Ebola epidemic). Moreover, pandemics can cause

significant levels of stress, and measures to prevent contamination, such as quarantine and social

isolation, can exacerbate mental health problems. (Blakey et al., 2015; Bonanno et al., 2008;

Cowling et al., 2010; Wu et al., 2009). Similarly, during the COVID-19 outbreak in China, the

general populace reported moderate to severe psychological symptoms (Tian et al., 2020; Wang

et al., 2020a; Wang et al., 2020b). Only one study looked at how mental health problems

changed in the general public from the initial outbreak phase (end of January) to the epidemic's

peak or acute phase (end of February) (n = 333) (Wang et al., 2020b).


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