Prevalence and influencing factors of PTSD symptoms among healthcare workers: A multicenter cross-sectional study during the surge period of the COVID-19 pandemic since December 2022 in the Chinese mainland.

BACKGROUND: China has experienced a surge period of COVID-19 pandemic since December 2022. Healthcare workers (HCWs) were exposed to huge workload under high risk of being infected, and significant levels of trauma, which might cause Post-traumatic Stress Disorders (PTSD) symptoms in HCWs. OBJECTIVES: To identify the prevalence of PTSD symptoms among HCWs in the Chinese mainland during the surge period of the COVID-19 pandemic; to explore their psycho-social factors of PTSD symptoms. METHODS: A multicenter cross-sectional study was conducted among HCWs in Chinese mainland from January 5 to February 9, 2023, covering seven geographical regions. 6552 participants were recruited by convenience sampling. Data were collected on demographic characteristics, work-related factors, and psychological factors by online questionnaires. Univariate analysis and binary logistic regression were used to determine the influencing factors of PTSD symptoms. RESULTS: The prevalence of PTSD symptoms among HCWs was 37.49 %. A higher level of mindfulness, resilience, and perceived social support were protective factors. Female gender, nurses, higher educational attainment, married status, more working years, higher perceived risk of contracting COVID-19 due to work, and higher perceived work intensity were risk factors. CONCLUSION: High prevalence of PTSD symptoms among HCWs necessitates psychological interventions. Tailored interventions, designed by professional psychiatrists, should be tailored to address the stressors. A comprehensive approach, incorporating mindfulness, resilience-building, and perceived social support enhancement, is vital to bolster the mental well-being of HCWs exposed to traumatic events, thus mitigating the impact of PTSD effectively. Additionally, it is essential to provide support to HCWs with other potential risk factors.

Seeking medical services among rural empty-nest elderly in China: a qualitative study.

BACKGROUND: The number of empty-nest elderly in China is rapidly increasing. Empty-nest elderly could not receive adequate daily care, economic support and spiritual consolation from their children. Rural empty-nest elderly are facing more serious health challenges than those in urban areas. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to understand the experiences of rural empty-nest elderly in seeking medical services in China. METHODS: The method of inductive content analysis was used to collect and analyze data. Data were collected by in-depth interviews. A total number of 16 participants were involved in this study. A semi-structured interview guideline, which was discussed in depth and agreed upon by all researchers, was used to encourage participants to talk about their experiences in seeking medical services. RESULTS: Rural empty-nest elderly is facing a great challenge in seeking medical services in China. There are some barriers for rural nest elderly to get access to healthcare services, such as low-income status, high expenditure of medical treatment and inadequate health insurance coverage. Due to the absence of the companionship of their adult children, empty-nest elderly have to rely on their neighbors and relatives to seek medical services. CONCLUSIONS: Rural empty-nest elderly have great difficulty in seeking medical services in China. More efforts should be made to get medical services more accessible to rural empty-nest elderly.

Seeking medical services through guanxi in China.

OBJECTIVE: Seeking access to medical services through social networks and personal relationships, referred to as 'guanxi', is a common phenomenon in China. This study aims to use a qualitative methodology to examine the experiences and perceptions of patients using guanxi in seeking medical services in China. METHODS: A semi-structured, face-to-face interview was conducted with eleven participants who had the experiences of using guanxi in seeking medical services. An inductive content analysis was employed to explore the themes and subthemes of these interviews. RESULTS: Five themes were generated: (1) underlying systemic context, (2) reasons for utilizing guanxi, (3) personal practices, (4) personal attitudes towards guanxi in healthcare seeking, (5) suggested solutions. CONCLUSIONS: Seeking medical services through guanxi exerts a negative influence on the doctor-patient relationship in China. This study uncovered a range of factors unidentified in the previous studies, which may have been important in helping to understand the social phenomenon of seeking medical services through guanxi in China. Further research needs to be conducted to explore measures that could reduce the disharmonious doctor-patient relationship caused by the social phenomenon of seeking medical services through guanxi. PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS: We recommend that doctors need to improve their communication skills, and pay more attention to the patient's biopsychosocial care; (2) hospitals should supervise doctors to treat patients in strict accordance with medical procedures; (3)government should implement healthcare reforms to provide affordable and reliable medical care services.

Study on Average Housing Prices in the Inland Capital Cities of China by Night-time Light Remote Sensing and Official Statistics Data.

In this paper, the annually average Defense Meteorological Satellite Program-Operational Linescan System (DMSP/OLS) night-time light data is first proposed as a surrogate indicator to mine and forecast the average housing prices in the inland capital cities of China. First, based on the time-series analysis of individual cities, five regression models with gross error elimination are established between average night-time light intensity (ANLI) and average commercial residential housing price (ACRHP) adjusted by annual inflation rate or not from 2002 to 2013. Next, an optimal model is selected for predicting the ACRHPs in 2014 of these capital cities, and then verified by the interval estimation and corresponding official statistics. Finally, experimental results show that the quadratic polynomial regression is the optimal mining model for estimating the ACRHP without adjustments in most provincial capitals and the predicted ACRHP of these cities are almost in their interval estimations except for the overrated Chengdu and the underestimated Wuhan, while the adjusted ACRHP is all in prediction interval. Overall, this paper not only provides a novel insight into time-series ACRHP data mining based on time-series ANLI for capital city scale but also reveals the potentiality and mechanism of the comprehensive ANLI to characterize the complicated ACRHP. Besides, other factors influencing housing prices, such as the time-series lags of government policy, are tested and analysed in this paper.

Epidemic Prevention During Work Resumption: A Case Study of One Chinese Company's Experience.

Background: The COVID-19 epidemic not only brings challenges to the health of people all over the world, but also impacts the global economy, and employment. Therefore, promoting industry and business to resume work safely has become an important step to be taken by all countries in overcoming the economic recession and restarting growth. Objective: This study aims to elaborate on epidemic prevention measures a Chinese company (Company C) took during work resumption. Methods: In this study, we used a case study design, with field research method applied to data collection and analysis. Results: It has been identified that Company C took a range of measures to prevent the outbreak of COVID-19 inside the company, which involve work resumption preparation (information survey, health training, work resumption plan, epidemic prevention plan), facilities management, materials management, employee activity management, and so on. Conclusion: When the COVID-19 epidemic was initially controlled in February, the Chinese government allowed enterprises to resume work voluntarily, which did not bring about a rebound in the epidemic. One important reason is that Chinese enterprises have taken multiple measures to prevent the spread of the COVID-19 virus. Company C's practices could shed some light on how companies in Western countries resume their work during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Potentiality of Using Luojia1-01 Night-Time Light Imagery to Estimate Urban Community Housing Price-A Case Study in Wuhan, China.

The first professional night-time light remote sensing satellite in China, Luojia1-01, has raised the resolution of night-time light data to 130 m, which provides a possibility for the study of small-scale night-time light. This paper is the first research on spatial analysis and quantitative modeling between night-time light intensity (NTLI) and community housing price (CHP) on a small scale by using the Luojia1-01 night-time light imagery. This paper takes Wuhan as the research area, CHP data obtained by web-crawler technology as the research object, combines Luojia1-01 data, and carries out spatial correlation analysis and quantitative modeling on a small scale for them. The experimental results show that there is a strong linear positive correlation between the NTLI and CHP based on geographically weighted regression (GWR), and the CHP data in Wuhan have obvious spatial non-stationarity. Moreover, the coupling mechanism between the NTLI and CHP is also revealed. We can conclude that there is potential for estimating the CHP by using Luojia1-01 night-time light imagery.

Hospice and Palliative Care: Development and Challenges in China.

BACKGROUND: Terminally ill patients can benefit from palliative care, including relief from physical and emotional suffering, improved quality of life, and longer survival rates. However, despite marked development in other countries, palliative care is still in its infancy in China. OBJECTIVES: The general population and healthcare professionals in China have yet to realize the importance of palliative care services. This article describes the status of palliative care services in China, the historic development of palliative care, and the barriers to its advancement. METHODS: The status quo of hospice and palliative care in China is reviewed, and suggestions are provided on how nurses can improve their abilities to care for patients with cancer at the end of life. FINDINGS: A significant amount of work is needed in China to meet the standards of international palliative care societies. Palliative care training for nurses is still very limited. Nurses and other health providers who are engaged in palliative care should be well trained regarding the principles and procedures of palliative care to ensure quality care.