Impact of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, Coronavirus Disease 2019, and Social Unrest on Adult Psychiatric Admissions in Hong Kong: A Comparative Population-Based Study.
J Nerv Ment Dis
; 211(12): 968-973, 2023 12 01.
Article
em En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-38015187
ABSTRACT
ABSTRACT In Hong Kong, two infectious disease outbreaks occurred in 2003 (SARS) and 2020 (COVID-19), and a large-scale social unrest happened in 2019. These were stressful societal events that influenced the mental well-being of the public. We aimed to explore the impact of these events on psychiatric admissions in Hong Kong. Socioeconomic and population-based psychiatric hospital admission data were retrieved from the government and Hospital Authority. Negative binomial time-series regression analysis was applied and we found overall significant reductions of psychiatric admissions during both the SARS and COVID-19 periods (-7.4% to -16.8%). Particularly, the admissions for unipolar disorders (-16.2% to -39.7%) and neuroses (-20.9% to -31.9%) were greatly reduced during the infection outbreaks. But an increase of admissions for schizophrenia (12.0%) was seen during the social unrest period. These findings support introducing early and targeted community mental health care strategies to the vulnerable people during the stressful societal events.
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Base de dados:
MEDLINE
Assunto principal:
COVID-19
Idioma:
En
Ano de publicação:
2023
Tipo de documento:
Article