COVID-19-Related Self-Stigma, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, Insomnia, and Smartphone Addiction Among Frontline Government Workers with COVID-19 Pandemic Control Duties

Abstract

Purpose

The duties related to COVID-19 control and prevention may have caused psychological stress for the individuals in charge (eg, frontline government workers) and have reportedly led to mental health issues, such as insomnia and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). However, the prevalence of these COVID-19-related disorders and their associated factors remain unclear. Therefore, the purpose of the present study was to investigate the prevalence rates of insomnia, PTSD, COVID-19-related self-stigma, and smartphone addiction, along with the identification of risk factors and protective factors for Taiwan frontline government workers with COVID-19 pandemic control duties.

Methods

The survey was carried out with 151 participants between September and October 2021. All participants completed the Fear of COVID-19 Scale (assessing fear of COVID-19), Self-Stigma Scale (assessing self-stigma during the COVID-19 pandemic), Smartphone Application-Based Addiction Scale (assessing the risk of smartphone addiction), Insomnia Severity Index (assessing insomnia), Impacts of Event Scale-6 (assessing PTSD), and a self-designed set of questions assessing trait resilience.

Results

The results showed that the prevalence rate was 31.1% for insomnia and 33.8% for PTSD. Furthermore, service duration (adjusted odds ratio [AOR] = 0.93; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.86, 0.999) and trait resilience (AOR = 0.19; 95% CI = 0.08, 0.46) were protective factors and fear of COVID-19 (AOR = 1.91; 95% CI = 1.02, 3.57) was a risk factor for insomnia. Fear of COVID-19 (AOR = 2.63; 95% CI = 1.35, 5.14), self-stigma (AOR = 3.62; 95% CI = 1.19, 11.02), and smartphone addiction (AOR = 1.09, 95% CI = 1.001, 1.19) were risk factors, and trait resilience was a protective factor (AOR = 0.58; 95% CI = 0.29, 1.17) for PTSD.

Conclusion

The findings demonstrated a high prevalence of insomnia and PTSD. Risk-reducing strategies and protective factor promotion strategies are recommended to help reduce the symptoms of insomnia and PTSD among Taiwan frontline government workers.

Keywords:

• mental health
• insomnia
• post-traumatic stress disorder
• smartphone addiction
• village officer

Abbreviations

PTSD, Post-traumatic stress disorder; FCV-19S, Fear of COVID-19 Scale; SSS, Self-Stigma Scale; SSS-COVID, Self-Stigma Scale for COVID-19; SABAS, Smartphone Application-Based Addiction Scale; ISI, Insomnia Severity Index; IES-6, Impacts of Event Scale-6.

Data Sharing Statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

Ethics Approval and Consent to Participate

The study protocol was approved by Human Research Ethics Committee of NCKU (HREC ref: NCKU HREC-E-110-121-2) and all the participants signed a written informed consent before participation. All methods were performed in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki, and participants could withdraw consent at any time.

Acknowledgments

We thank the staff from National Cheng Kung University for their help with data collection.

Disclosure

The authors report no conflicts of interest in this work.

Additional information

Funding

This study was supported in part by a research grant from the Ministry of Science and Technology, Taiwan (MOST109-2327-B-006-005; MOST111-2321-B-006-009) and a research grant from the Taipei Municipal Wanfang Hospital Cross-Institutions Fund (110-swf-01).