Observational Study
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World J Psychiatry. Feb 19, 2025; 15(2): 97971
Published online Feb 19, 2025. doi: 10.5498/wjp.v15.i2.97971
Depression levels of the general public increases during the COVID-19 pandemic in China: A web-based cross-sectional survey
Qin-Ming Qiu, Yu Xiao
Qin-Ming Qiu, Department of Psychiatry, Huzhou Third People’s Hospital, Huzhou 313001, Zhejiang Province, China
Yu Xiao, Psychosomatic Medical Center, The Fourth People’s Hospital of Chengdu, Chengdu 610036, Sichuan Province, China
Author contributions: Qiu QM contributed to the conceptualization, methodology, investigation, writing, and so on; Xiao Y participated in the validation, data curation, formal analysis, and so on.
Institutional review board statement: The study protocol was approved by the Ethical Review Committee of Huzhou third municipal hospital (AF-47).
Informed consent statement: All participants voluntarily filled out the questionnaire online.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors report no relevant conflicts of interest for this article.
Data sharing statement: Data are available to researchers upon request by directly contacting the corresponding authors, for purposes of reproducing the results or replicating the procedure.
STROBE statement: The authors have read the STROBE Statement-checklist of items, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the STROBE Statement-checklist of items.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Yu Xiao, Psychosomatic Medical Center, The Fourth People’s Hospital of Chengdu, No. 8 Huli West Lane 1, Yingmenkou Road, Chengdu 610036, Sichuan Province, China. xiaoy3@outlook.com
Received: June 14, 2024
Revised: November 8, 2024
Accepted: December 10, 2024
Published online: February 19, 2025
Processing time: 214 Days and 5.9 Hours
Abstract
BACKGROUND

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak lasted several months, having started in December 2019. This study aimed to report the impacts of various factors on the depression levels of the general public and ascertain how emotional measures could be affected by psychosocial factors during the COVID-19 pandemic.

AIM

To investigate the depression levels of the general public in China during the COVID-19 pandemic.

METHODS

A total of 2001 self-reported questionnaires about Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) were collected on August 22, 2022 via the website. Each questionnaire included four levels of depression and other demographic information. The BDI scores and incidences of different depression levels were compared between various groups of respondents. χ2 analysis and the two-tailed t-test were used to assess categorical and continuous data, respectively. Multiple linear regressions and logistic regressions were employed for correlation analysis.

RESULTS

The averaged BDI score in this study was higher than that for the non-epidemic periods, as reported in previous studies. Even higher BDI scores and incidences of moderate and severe depression were recorded for people who were quarantined for suspected COVID-19 infection, compared to the respondents who were not quarantined. The participants who did not take protective measures were associated with higher BDI scores than those who made efforts to keep themselves relatively safer. Similarly, the people who did not return to work had higher BDI scores compared to those managed to. A significant association existed between the depression levels of the subgroups and each of the factors, except gender and location of residence. However, quarantine was the most relative predictor for depression levels, followed by failure to take preventive measures and losing a partner, either through divorce or death.

CONCLUSION

Based on these data, psychological interventions for the various subpopulations in the general public can be implemented during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. Other countries can also use the data as a reference.

Keywords: COVID-19; Epidemic; Depression; General public; Psychosocial factors

Core Tip: This study aims to report the impacts of various factors on the depression levels of members of the public and ascertain how emotional measures can be affected by psychosocial factors during the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic. Comparisons of the Beck Depression Inventory scores and incidences of different depression levels in various groups of respondents were made. Based on the findings from this study, psychological interventions for the various subpopulations in the general public can be implemented during and after the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic. Moreover, other countries may also use them as a reference.