Abstract:
Background As a major stress event, the COVID-19 epidemic may reduce the troops' combat effectiveness. Therefore, it is necessary to investigate officers' and soldiers' mental health status under the epidemic to provide evidence for psychological intervention.
Objective To investigate the mental health status of officers and soldiers during the COVID-19 pandemic and its influencing factors.
Methods From February 8 to February 15 in 2020, totally 28 663 officers and soldiers were selected to complete the general situation questionnaire, Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD-7), Self-Reporting Questionnaires (SRQ-20) and Insomnia Severity Index (ISI). A multiple regression model was used to analyze the influencing factors of mental health.
Results Of the 28 663 cases, there were 27 121 males and 1 542 females with average age of (23.76 ± 4.65) years. The detection rate of anxiety was 10.97%, with mild anxiety accounting for 8.34% (2491/28 663), and moderate and severe anxiety symptoms accounting for 2.62% (752/28 663). The detection rate of stress was 5.32%; and the detection rate of insomnia was 11.82%, with mild insomnia accounting for 9.49% (2 720/28 663), moderate and severe insomnia accounting for 2.18% (625/28 663). Multiple linear regression analysis showed that health status, gender, marital status, fear of infection, education level, and age had significant impact on an individual's emotional response (all P<0.05). Among them, self-rated health status and gender had higher impact.
Conclusion The psychological status among officers and soldiers is generally well, but people with self-rated health status and females are more likely to have some psychological problems.