Vicarious traumatization in the general public, members, and non members of medical teams aiding in COVID 19 control
Since December 2019, more than 79,000 people have been diagnosed with infection of the Corona Virus Disease 2019 (COVID 19) A large number of medical staff were dispersed for Wuhan city and Hubei province to aid COVID 19 control. Psychological stress, especially vicarious traumatization (VT) caused by the COVID 19 pandemic, should not be ignored. To address this concern, the study employed a total of 214 general public (GP) and 526 nurses to evaluate VT scores via a mobile app based questionnaire. Results showed that the VT scores slightly increased across periods of aiding COVID 19 control, although no statistical difference was noted (P 0.083) However, the study found lower scores for VT in nurses [median 69; interquartile range (IQR) 56 85] than those of the GP (median 75.5; IQR 62 88.3) (P 0.017) In addition, the VT scores for front line nurses (FLNs; median 64; IQR 52 75) including scores for physiological and psychological responses, were significantly lower than those of non front line nurses (nFLNs; median 75.5; IQR 63 92) (P 0.001) Interestingly, the VT scores of the GP were significantly higher than those of the FLNs (P 0.001) However, no statistical difference was observed compared with those of nFLNs (P 0.05) Importantly, nFLNs are more likely to suffer from VT, which might be related to two factors, namely, gender [odds ratio (OR) 3.1717; 95% confidence interval (CI) 4.247 18.808; P 0.002] and fertility [OR 2.072; 95%CI 0.626 24.533; P 0.039] Therefore, increased attention should be paid to the psychological problems of the medical staff, especially nFLNs, and GP under the situation of the spread and control of COVID 19. Early strategies that aim to prevent and treat VT in medical staff and GP are extremely necessary.
medRxiv