Different prevalence trend of depression and anxiety among healthcare workers and general public before and after the peak of COVID-19 occurred in China: A meta-analysis.

OBJECTIVE

We aim to evaluate the prevalence of depression and anxiety among general public and healthcare workers during COVID-19 in China and the changes of prevalence before and after the peak of the epidemic occurred.

METHODS

Studies were searched from following database: PubMed, Web of Science, Cochrane Library, China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), WANGFANG DATA, from inception to 1 st May 2020. Random-effects model was applied to pool the prevalence. Comparative analysis was also applied to evaluate the changes of prevalence before and after the peak of the epidemic occurred.

RESULTS

34 articles were finally included. Prevalence of depression and anxiety was higher among healthcare worker than general public. Among general public, 26 % (95 %CI: 17 %-36 %) were suffering from depression and 22 % (95 %CI: 15 %-30 %) were having anxiety during COVID-19, while the prevalence of depression and anxiety among healthcare workers was 31 % (95 %CI: 25 %-37 %) and 40 % (95 %CI: 33 %-46 %) respectively. Comparative analysis showed healthcare workers (depression: 40 %, anxiety: 38 %) had higher percentage of having depression and anxiety than the general public (depression: 33 %, anxiety: 24 %) before the peak. Then a descended prevalence among healthcare workers (depression: 22 %, anxiety: 22 %) was detected compared with that before, while the prevalence among the general public raised (depression: 62 %, anxiety: 44 %) after the peak occurred.

CONCLUSION

The COVID-19 epidemic had a potential psychiatric impact on general public and healthcare workers in China, which is more severer among healthcare workers. However, the psychiatric status of the general public trend to deteriorated, while healthcare workers trend to improve after the peak of epidemic.