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©The Author(s) 2025. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Psychiatry. Apr 19, 2025; 15(4): 104625
Published online Apr 19, 2025. doi: 10.5498/wjp.v15.i4.104625
Published online Apr 19, 2025. doi: 10.5498/wjp.v15.i4.104625
Media consumption patterns and depressive and anxiety symptoms in the Chinese general population during the COVID-19 outbreak
Rui-Yao Wu, Lin-Feng Ge, Department of Psychiatry, The Affiliated Wuhan Mental Health Center, Tongji Medical College of Huazhong University of Science & Technology, Wuhan 430012, Hubei Province, China
Bao-Liang Zhong, Department of Psychiatry, Wuhan Mental Health Center, Wuhan 430012, Hubei Province, China
Co-first authors: Rui-Yao Wu and Lin-Feng Ge.
Author contributions: Zhong BL designed of the study, interpreted of data for the study, revised the paper critically for important intellectual content, and final approval of the version to be submitted; Wu RY and Ge LF acquired and analyzed of data for the study, interpreted of data for the study, and drafted the paper, they contributed equally as co-first authors; and all authors have read and approve the final manuscript.
Supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China, No. 71774060; and the Young Top Talent Program in Public Health from Health Commission of Hubei Province, No. EWEITONG[2021]74.
Institutional review board statement: The study protocol was approved by the Institutional Review Board at the Wuhan Mental Health Center (Approval No. KY2020.011).
Informed consent statement: All study participants, or their legal guardian, provided informed written consent prior to study enrollment.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors report no relevant conflicts of interest for this article.
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.
Data sharing statement: Data will be made available upon reasonable request from the corresponding author at haizhilan@gmail.com.
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: Bao-Liang Zhong, MD, PhD, Associate Professor, Department of Psychiatry, Wuhan Mental Health Center, No. 89 Gongnongbing Road, Jiang’an District, Wuhan 430012, Hubei Province, China. haizhilan@gmail.com
Received: December 26, 2024
Revised: January 30, 2025
Accepted: February 21, 2025
Published online: April 19, 2025
Processing time: 89 Days and 20.5 Hours
Revised: January 30, 2025
Accepted: February 21, 2025
Published online: April 19, 2025
Processing time: 89 Days and 20.5 Hours
Core Tip
Core Tip: This study examined media consumption patterns and their relationships with depressive and anxiety symptoms among the general population during the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic. In the cluster analysis, survey participants’ media preferences were categorized into seven clusters. A higher risk of depression and anxiety was observed among participants who primarily consumed media through social platforms, with minimal engagement in traditional and digital media sources. Encouraging the use of traditional and digital media, along with implementing regulatory policies on social media platforms, has the potential to mitigate the risk of depression and anxiety in the general population during future medical pandemics.