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Abstract
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Background and purpose: The global health crisis due to the COVID-19 pandemic had serious psychosocial impacts worldwide. A large number of people in Taiwan were subjected to home quarantine due to infection or close contact with Omicron variant SARS-CoV-2. This study aimed to investigate the short-term outcome of a mental health care program for people at home quarantine with different COVID-19 related conditions.
METHODS: The Tainan city government set up a digital Application named "Tainan City Government Health Care Cloud" to provide an online Brief Symptom Rating Scale (BSRS-5) for self-assessment on psychological distress, give immediate feedback, and send mental health promotion resources including stress management skills online according to the BSRS-5 results. All individuals legally required for home quarantine as well as unaffected ordinary people who aged 15 or older and registered online and completed the BSRS-5 at two-time points, one week apart, between May 1st and June 30th 2022 were recruited for the study. The BSRS-5 scores and past week suicidal ideation (SI) were compared between the first Time (T1) and the follow-up Time (T2). Stepwise regression was used to estimate the association between SI and associated psychological distress at T1 and T2.
RESULTS: 32,470 individuals registered on the systems and completed the questionnaire during home quarantine. Of them, 10,967 participants who completed the BSRS-5 twice, one week apart, were recruited for analysis in the study. 58.4% of the participants were female, and 53.2% was between the ages of 31-50. The COVID-19 related conditions were categorized into "close contacts" (group CC, n=1,414), "confirmed COVID-19 infections" (group C, n=4,172), and "close contact then confirmed case" (group CCC) (n=755). The prevalence of psychiatric morbidity (PM) and SI was 11.1% vs 2.7% at Time 1 and 8.3% vs 2.3% at Time 2, respectively. The levels of five items of BSRS-5 and general psychological distress (BSRS-5 total) were significantly decreased from Time 1 to Time 2 either for the total participants or for various COVID-19 conditions. Group CCC had the highest rate of PM (14.2% vs 9.9%) at Time 1 and Time 2, followed by group CC, group C, and finally the unaffected ordinary people group. There was no significance in SI between T1 and T2. Stepwise regression analysis on SI by time-points indicated that the significant predictor was inferiority (T1, T2, and T1+T2), depression (T2), and hostility (T1+T2).
CONCLUSION: The study indicated that the online supporting care model was feasible and effective for amelioration of psychological distress in the short-term follow-up. It provided a basis for the future development of novel strategies for suicide prevention and mental health promotion for a large population during disasters.
Language: zh |