Media consumption patterns and depressive and anxiety symptoms in the Chinese general population during the COVID-19 outbreak

Table 1 Demographic and infection-related characteristics and poor coronavirus disease 2019 knowledge of the study sample

Variable	n	%
Sex
Males	3265	38.5
Females	5208	61.5
Age, years	33.03 ± 10.58	16-90
Educational attainment
College and above	7043	83.1
Senior middle school and below	1430	16.9
Marital status
Currently married	4812	56.8
Others	3661	43.2
Family member or close relatives infected with COVID-19	102	1.2
Colleagues, friends, or classmates infected with COVID-19	798	9.4
Worry of COVID-19 infection	6525	77.0
Worry of family members’ COVID-19 infection	7528	88.8
Poor COVID-19 knowledge	492	5.8

COVID-19: Coronavirus disease 2019.

Table 2 Distribution of media sources and prevalence of depressive and anxiety symptoms across the seven clusters identified from the cluster analysis, n (%)

	Cluster 1 (n = 839)	Cluster 2 (n = 1209)	Cluster 3 (n = 1007)	Cluster 4 (n = 940)	Cluster 5 (n = 1469)	Cluster 6 (n = 1587)	Cluster 7 (n = 1422)	χ2	P value
Source
Newspaper	69 (8.2)	618 (51.1)	6 (0.6)	3 (0.3)	0 (0.0)	0 (0.0)	0 (0.0)	3507.478	< 0.001
Television	595 (70.9)	1081 (89.4)	106 (10.5)	575 (61.2)	1469 (100.0)	766 (48.3)	821 (57.7)	2626.667	< 0.001
Radio	96 (11.4)	971 (80.3)	1 (0.1)	0 (0.0)	0 (0.0)	0 (0.0)	0 (0.0)	5956.988	< 0.001
News portal	579 (69.0)	944 (78.1)	571 (56.7)	624 (66.4)	905 (61.6)	1587 (100.0)	0 (0.0)	3444.272	< 0.001
WeChat	0 (0.0)	1109 (91.7)	888 (88.2)	901 (95.9)	1339 (91.2)	1426 (89.9)	1256 (88.3)	4174.147	< 0.001
QQ	85 (10.1)	441 (36.5)	26 (2.6)	940 (100.0)	0 (0.0)	0 (0.0)	0 (0.0)	5840.988	< 0.001
MicroBlog	6 (0.7)	597 (49.4)	580 (57.6)	458 (48.7)	704 (47.9)	672 (42.3)	709 (49.9)	767.076	< 0.001
News client	570 (67.9)	825 (68.2)	105 (10.4)	517 (55.0)	0 (0.0)	1587 (100.0)	1422 (100.0)	5276.014	< 0.001
Others	43 (5.1)	82 (6.8)	274 (27.2)	42 (4.5)	0 (0.0)	0 (0.0)	0 (0.0)	1241.279	< 0.001
Depressive symptoms	244 (29.1)	385 (31.8)	434 (43.1)	310 (33.0)	544 (37.0)	622 (39.2)	574 (40.4)	69.080	< 0.001
Anxiety symptoms	191 (22.8)	303 (25.1)	344 (34.2)	254 (27.0)	464 (31.6)	540 (34.0)	509 (35.8)	80.613	< 0.001

Table 3 Demographic and infection-related characteristics and poor coronavirus disease 2019 knowledge of the seven clusters, n (%)

	Cluster 1 (n = 839)	Cluster 2 (n = 1209)	Cluster 3 (n = 1007)	Cluster 4 (n = 940)	Cluster 5 (n = 1469)	Cluster 6 (n = 1587)	Cluster 7 (n = 1422)	χ2/F	P value
Females	370 (44.1)	687 (56.8)	689 (68.4)	531 (56.5)	944 (64.3)	1004 (63.3)	983 (69.1)	190.479	< 0.001
Age, years	34.48 ± 12.91	36.27 ± 10.90	33.14 ± 9.00	32.83 ± 11.36	35.64 ± 10.98	36.50 ± 9.45	34.81 ± 9.57	21.651	< 0.001
Educational attainment of senior middle school and below	287 (34.2)	237 (19.6)	118 (11.7)	248 (26.4)	187 (12.7)	196 (12.4)	157 (11.0)	341.395	< 0.001
Currently married	451 (53.8)	769 (63.6)	489 (48.6)	475 (50.5)	792 (53.9)	1015 (64.0)	821 (57.7)	107.53	< 0.001
Family members or close relatives infected with COVID-19	11 (1.3)	7 (0.6)	15 (1.5)	11 (1.2)	18 (1.2)	22 (1.4)	18 (1.3)	5.246	0.513
Colleagues, friends, or classmates infected with COVID-19	50 (6.0)	110 (9.1)	81 (8.0)	79 (8.4)	156 (10.6)	176 (11.1)	146 (10.3)	24.159	< 0.001
Worry of COVID-19 infection	570 (67.9)	901 (74.5)	776 (77.1)	724 (77.0)	1134 (77.2)	1265 (79.7)	1155 (81.2)	64.045	< 0.001
Worry of family members’ COVID-19 infection	711 (84.7)	1044 (86.4)	910 (90.4)	831 (88.4)	1307 (89.0)	1443 (90.9)	1282 (90.2)	33.785	< 0.001
Poor COVID-19 knowledge	106 (12.6)	88 (7.3)	52 (5.2)	98 (10.4)	57 (3.9)	39 (2.5)	52 (3.7)	168.25	< 0.001

COVID-19: Coronavirus disease 2019.

Table 4 Relative risk of depressive and anxiety symptoms across clusters compared to cluster 1, odds ratio (95% confidence interval), P value

Cluster	Step 0	Step 1	Step 2	Step 3	Step 4
Depressive symptoms
Cluster 1	1	1	1	1	1
Cluster 2	1.14 (0.94, 1.38), 0.183	1.04 (0.86, 1.27), 0.678	1.04 (0.85, 1.26), 0.711	1.01 (0.83, 1.23), 0.941	1.01 (0.83, 1.23), 0.910
Cluster 3	1.85 (1.52, 2.24), < 0.001	1.52 (1.24, 1.85), < 0.001	1.51 (1.23, 1.84), < 0.001	1.45 (1.18, 1.77), < 0.001	1.46 (1.19, 1.78), < 0.001
Cluster 4	1.20 (0.98, 1.47), 0.077	1.09 (0.89, 1.34), 0.400	1.08 (0.88, 1.32), 0.485	1.02 (0.83, 1.26), 0.845	1.02 (0.83, 1.26), 0.824
Cluster 5	1.43 (1.20, 1.72), < 0.001	1.23 (1.02, 1.48), 0.032	1.20 (0.99, 1.45), 0.053	1.15 (0.95, 1.39), 0.154	1.16 (0.96, 1.40), 0.130
Cluster 6	1.57 (1.31, 1.88), < 0.001	1.37 (1.14, 1.66), 0.001	1.35 (1.12, 1.62), 0.002	1.27 (1.05, 1.53), 0.012	1.28 (1.06, 1.55), 0.009
Cluster 7	1.65 (1.38, 1.98), < 0.001	1.38 (1.14, 1.66), 0.001	1.36 (1.12, 1.64), 0.002	1.27 (1.05, 1.54), 0.013	1.28 (1.06, 1.55), 0.011
Anxiety symptoms
Cluster 1	1		1
Cluster 2	1.14 (0.92, 1.40), 0.232	1.00 (0.81, 1.24), 0.983	0.99 (0.80, 1.22), 0.932	0.95 (0.76, 1.17), 0.608	0.9 5(0.76, 1.18), 0.620
Cluster 3	1.76 (1.43, 2.17), < 0.001	1.47 (1.19, 1.82), < 0.001	1.46 (1.18, 1.81), 0.001	1.37 (1.10, 1.71), 0.004	1.38 (1.11, 1.71), 0.004
Cluster 4	1.26 (1.01, 1.56), 0.039	1.15 (0.93, 1.44), 0.199	1.13 (0.91, 1.41), 0.280	1.04 (0.83, 1.31), 0.718	1.04 (0.83, 1.31), 0.709
Cluster 5	1.57 (1.29, 1.90), < 0.001	1.34 (1.10, 1.63), 0.004	1.30 (1.07, 1.59), 0.010	1.22 (0.99, 1.50), 0.059	1.22 (0.99, 1.50), 0.053
Cluster 6	1.75 (1.44, 2.12), < 0.001	1.47 (1.21, 1.79), < 0.001	1.44 (1.18, 1.75), < 0.001	1.32 (1.08, 1.62), 0.006	1.33 (1.09, 1.63), 0.005
Cluster 7	1.89 (1.56, 2.30), < 0.001	1.56 (1.28, 1.90), < 0.001	1.53 (1.25, 1.86), < 0.001	1.40 (1.14, 1.72), 0.001	1.40 (1.15, 1.72), 0.001

Step 0: Unadjusted. Step 1: Adjusted for demographic variables. Step 2: Adjusted for demographic variables and objective risk of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) infection. Step 3: Adjusted for demographic variables and both perceived and objective risk of COVID-19 infection. Step 4: Adjusted for demographic variables, both perceived and objective risk of COVID-19 infection, and poor COVID-19 knowledge.