Due to the sudden outbreak, rapid contagious, and the lack of anti-virus vaccines and medicine, it is inevitable that healthcare workers participating in clinical first-line treatment will sustain enormous pressure and expose themselves to hazard. However, healthcare workers from other provinces and cities have left their hometown and come to a particular area. They work in conjunction with the local healthcare workers in the anti-epidemic work. Therefore, they will moreover confront the corresponding pressure. In order to understand the mental health status of the particular population, this study uses the way of network questionnaire to investigate their sleep quality, anxiety level and depression level in this part of Hubei Province, to provide guidance on how to carry out the corresponding psychological intervention after their return journey.
This study showed that the sleep quality of all the healthcare workers was significantly worse than that of the ordinary people, which indicated that the healthcare workers in Hubei Province could not have a good rest due to the limited accommodation conditions and heavy work tasks during the working period. Even some people might have some sleep disorders. According to the investigation of the first-line healthcare workers during the SARS outbreak in 2003, 26.62% of them suffered from insomnia [13]. According to media reports, we can see that due to the shortage of protective materials, in arrange to save materials, medical personnel need to work continuously for 6–7 hours after wearing protective clothing. This kind of high-intensity work would inevitably lead to excessive exhaustion of energy and pressure of the human body, and under the excessive pressure, the main performance of the human body may be sleep problems. Therefore, for these particular groups, the government should give them appropriate leaving system after their return to ensure that everyone has enough sleep, to help them to adjust their daily life and return to regular work.
Through the analysis of the scores of anxiety and depression self-assessment scale of all healthcare workers, it can be found that there are some anxiety and depression in healthcare workers, and the performance of anxiety is more prominent than depression. About 14.3% of them are at the level of mild anxiety, 43.3% are at the level of moderate anxiety, and 33.3% are at the level of severe anxiety. It can be seen that anxiety symptoms are the most common and prominent manifestation of the aid workers. Some scholars have believed that the psychological reactions of individuals after encountering stress events mainly include depression and anxiety [14, 15]. However, our healthcare workers in Hubei Province have to face not only the highly infectious new COVID-19 but also heavy physical consumption and enormous mental pressure every day. In this manner, anxiety and depression are inevitable. As this study found, approximately 35.7% of the people are moreover at the level of moderate depression. As Tian et al. [13] analyzed when investigating the mental health level of healthcare workers on the front-line of SARS prevention and treatment, these front-line workers must treat and care patients in the condition of wearing protective clothing, gloves, hats, masks and eye masks, and must receive isolation observation after work, which will increase their mental pressure. Besides, since few healthcare workers in Hubei Province have ever been exposed to the prevention and control of infectious diseases, they may also have some deficiencies in the knowledge and skills related to epidemic prevention and control. The temporary multiple training tasks before entering the front-line will also increase their mental pressure. During the period of aiding Hubei, the time of communication with family and companions will be significantly reduced, which will further diminish their sources of social support, resulting in an increase in the probability of mental problems. Besides, according to the report of the aid specialists in Hubei Province, they are all temporarily living in the hotels designated by the government, one person living in one room, and they need to avoid gathering as much as possible after returning from work. Therefore, most people can only live alone in a narrow space, and this monotonous living environment will inevitably lead to inevitable depression. Therefore, the above results suggest that we need to pay more attention to the mental health level of healthcare workers in Hubei Province, and may need to provide them with appropriate relaxation training and positive suggestion training, so as to assist them better through the involvement of Hubei Province.
Because there are some differences in the psychological characteristics and expression ways between men and women, this study compared and analyzed the sleep, anxiety and depression scale of healthcare workers in Hubei Province according to different genders. After analysis, we found relatively extraordinary results that the sleep quality of men was worse than that of women, and their anxiety level was higher. From the previous research results, we found that in the face of the SARS outbreak, the anxiety severity of women in the population is generally higher than that of men [16]. Wang and others also found that women healthcare workers may be more prone to anxiety and depression than men in mental status changes [17]. However, our research results are different from others, and the specific situation needs specific analysis. We can see that the previous research object is the general public or the local healthcare workers, and no one has analyzed the mental health of the particular group of healthcare workers aiding Wuhan. The reason for the male sleep deviation and massive anxiety maybe, on the one hand, due to the fact that the age of male aid workers is generally older, their physical strength and energy recovery level will not be as fast as that of young women, so they are more prone to fatigue and insomnia; on the other hand, more of these men have already married, so long-term absence from home and less communication with spouse or children will make it difficult for them to release the negative emotions caused by stress expeditiously, in the case of chronic stress. There is bound to be an increment in anxiety levels.Additionally,since numerous women belong to the nurse group, and they are youthful, their estrogen level secretion is in an intense period, so it is also a protective factor for their emotions. Women are more inclined to express their emotions at any time, so less negative emotions will be overstocked. From the above results, we can see that in the past, we need to pay more attention to the mental wellbeing of female health workers. However, male health workers may also require psychological counselling, and learn to actively express emotions, in order to diminish their anxiety level further.