Stress response and influencing factors among fever outpatients and children's families during normalisation of the COVID-19 epidemic: A cross-sectional study.
Lifen Lu, Gui Zheng, Jiangqin He and 5 others
PMID 36710404WHAT IT FOUND
Fever-clinic patients and children's families reported stress higher than Chinese norms, mainly physical and emotional.
Adult outpatients had higher stress than families. Low income, comorbidities, religious beliefs, lower tenacity and less positive coping were linked to higher stress.
Key findings
01Participants' total stress response, emotional response and physical response scores were higher than the Chinese norm; behavioural response was not.
02Adult fever outpatients had higher total stress scores than children's families.
03Higher stress scores were associated with lower resilience and less positive coping, and total stress was also associated with more negative coping.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
The study was cross-sectional and self-reported, so it cannot show that any factor caused stress or that any support reduced stress. It used a convenience sample from one fever clinic in Yiwu, a city with many high-income and freelance workers, so results may not apply elsewhere. The methods report 628 recruited and 541 effectively recovered, with a confusing note about 87 cases and responses under 120 seconds, so the analysed sample should be read cautiously. The authors note that the sample size and sampling time may limit accuracy, and that some demographic associations were weaker after adjustment.
Declared interests
The study was funded by the Department of Education of Zhejiang Province (No: Y202045703), and the authors declared no conflict of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that reducing waiting time or giving emotional support lowered stress. This was a self-report survey of patients and families at one hospital, so it shows associations only, not cause.