Prevalence and correlates of PTSD and depressive symptoms one month after the outbreak of the COVID-19 epidemic in a sample of home-quarantined Chinese university students

Background: When COVID-19 emerged in China in late 2019, most citizens were home-quarantined to prevent the spread of the virus. This study explored the prevalence of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and de-pression in a sample of home-quarantined college students to identify the psychological distress risk factors. Method: The PTSD and depressive symptoms in the 2485 participants from 6 universities were investigated using online survey versions of the PTSD Checklist Civilian Version and the 9-question Patient Health Questionnaires (PHQ-9), and data on sleep durations, exposure, home-quarantine time and socio-demographic variables were also collected. Results: The PTSD and depression prevalence were found to be 2.7% and 9.0%. Subjectively, feeling extreme fear was the most signi ficant risk factor for psychological distress, followed by short sleep durations, being in their graduating year (4 th year) and living in severely a fflicted areas. Sleep durations was a mediator between ex-posures and mental health problems. Conclusions: The results suggested that the psychological consequences of the COVID-19 could be serious. Psychological interventions that reduce fear and improve sleep durations need to be made available to the home-quarantined university students, and graduating students and those in the worst-hit areas should be given priority focus.