Background: With the increasing spread of COVID-19, healthcare workers, especially front-line medical staff, have become more vulnerable to emotional exhaustion.Objectives: This study aimed to determine the influence of time pressure on the emotional exhaustion of front-line healthcare workers, and explore the effects of social sharing and cognitive reappraisal on this.Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted in March 2020. A total of 232 questionnaires were completed by front-line healthcare workers in Wuhan city, Hubei province, China. Hierarchical linear regression and conditional process analysis were performed to explore the relationships among time pressure, social sharing, cognitive reappraisal, and emotional exhaustion.Results: Time pressure was positively associated with social sharing and emotional exhaustion. Social sharing presented the dark side, a negative effect that was always kept concealed, in terms of the impact on emotional exhaustion. Cognitive reappraisal negatively moderated the relationship between time pressure and social sharing, and it further indirectly influenced the relationship between time pressure and emotional exhaustion through social sharing.Conclusions: Our findings shed light on how time pressure influences the emotional exhaustion of healthcare workers during the COVID-19 period. Although social sharing is commonly regarded as a positive behavior, we identified a dark side in terms of its impact. We also identified that improving cognitive reappraisal may present a positive strategy toward alleviating emotional exhaustion.

Objectives Hospitals devoted to maternal and child health represent unique healthcare institutions in China. Healthcare professionals in these hospitals attend to health services for women and children, and also provide technical services and support for district maternal and children’s healthcare as well as family planning. However, few studies have examined occupational burnout among doctors employed in these hospitals. This research addresses the gap in the literature. Methods A cross-sectional survey of obstetricians and paediatricians from 11 maternal and child health hospitals across China was conducted May through June 2017. A total of 678 people completed a self-administered questionnaire. The survey included questions about demographics, doctor–patient relationships and networks of support as well as characteristics designed to capture the occurrence of burnout, such as emotional exhaustion, cynicism and professional efficacy. T-test, variance and multiple regression analyses were used to examine the data. Results The research revealed that 56.6% of obstetricians and paediatricians exhibited signs of occupational burnout. Poor doctor–patient relationships and high average number of weekly hours worked contributed to burnout. Additionally, low family support corresponded to physicians’ low sense of professional efficacy. Conclusions Several factors have contributed to occupational burnout among paediatricians and obstetricians at maternal and child health hospitals in China, including lack of family support, poor doctor–patient relationships and heavy workloads.

Background: The novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) spreads rapidly among people and causes a pandemic. It is of great clinical significance to identify COVID-19 patients with high risk of death. Methods: A total of 2169 adult COVID-19 patients were enrolled from Wuhan, China, from February 10th to April 15th, 2020. Difference analyses of medical records were performed between severe and non-severe groups, as well as between survivors and non-survivors. In addition, we developed a decision tree model to predict death outcome in severe patients. Results: Of the 2169 COVID-19 patients, the median age was 61 years and male patients accounted for 48%. A total of 646 patients were diagnosed as severe illness, and 75 patients died. An older median age and a higher proportion of male patients were found in severe group or non-survivors compared to their counterparts. Significant differences in clinical characteristics and laboratory examinations were found between severe and non-severe groups, as well as between survivors and non-survivors. A decision tree, including three biomarkers, neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio, C-reactive protein and lactic dehydrogenase, was developed to predict death outcome in severe patients. This model performed well both in training and test datasets. The accuracy of this model were 0.98 in both datasets. Conclusion: We performed a comprehensive analysis of COVID-19 patients from the outbreak in Wuhan, China, and proposed a simple and clinically operable decision tree to help clinicians rapidly identify COVID-19 patients at high risk of death, to whom priority treatment and intensive care should be given.

Tuberculosis (TB) patient management (TPM) is crucial to improve patient compliance to treatment. The coverage of TPM delivered by TB dispensaries or Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) was not high under the previous CDC model of TB control in China. In the integrated TB control model in China, TB patient management (TPM) was mainly delivered by lay health workers (LHWs) in primary health care (PHC) sectors. This study aims to investigate TPM delivery in resource-limited western China and to identify factors affecting TPM delivery by LHWs under the integrated TB control model. A stratified random sampling was used to select study sites. Pulmonary TB (PTB) patients ≥15 years old from selected counties/districts in Guizhou Province were surveyed from August 2015 to May 2016. Structured questionnaires were used to collect data. A χ2 test and logistic regression were used to identify factors associated with self-administered treatment (non-TPM). In total, 638 PTB patients were included in the final analysis. Close to 30% of patients were ethnic minorities. More than 30% of patients were from counties with high TB burden, and 24.9% of patients had poor compliance to treatment. Only 37.1% of patients received TPM delivered by LHWs under the integrated TB control model throughout the treatment period. The main reasons for unwillingness to manage reported by patients included social stigma and no perceived need. Being ethnic minorities (OR = 3.35) was a main factor associated with lower likelihood of receiving TPM, while living in areas with middle or high TB burden may increase the likelihood of receiving TPM (OR = 0.17 and 0.25, respectively). Among current management approaches, more than 85% of patients chose phone reminder as their preferred TPM by LHWs. TPM under the integrated model in West China is still low and need further improvement, and the impeding factors of TPM need to be addressed. Strengthening patient-centered and community-based TPM and developing more feasible approaches of TPM delivery should be explored in future research in this region.

Objectives This study aimed to examine the influence and conditioning process of hindrance stressors on the emotional exhaustion of the front-line healthcare workers during recuperation, examine the potential mediating process of rumination, and explore the moderating role of organisational and family factors. Setting This cross-sectional study was conducted during 12–20 July 2020. Total 418 questionnaires were collected from front-line healthcare workers by random cluster sampling. Hierarchical regression was performed to analyse the mediating effect of affective rumination using SPSS25.0, while PROCESS was used to further investigate the moderating role of servant leadership and family support. Participants 418 healthcare workers were investigated randomly from front-line medical teams. Inclusion criteria included worked as front-line health workers and participated in the fight against COVID-19 in Hubei; age ≥18 years; normal cognitive and comprehension abilities under physical and mental health; volunteer to participate in this study. Exclusion criteria included recently affected by major events other than COVID-19 or those with a history of neurasthenia and trauma. Results Using descriptive analysis of average value and SD measured by a five-item scale (MBI-GS), we found that front-line healthcare workers’ emotional exhaustion score (2.45±0.88) was at the medium level. Hindrance stressors, mediated by affective rumination, had a significant positive predictive effect on emotional exhaustion. Servant leadership negatively moderated the direct effect of hindrance stressors on emotional exhaustion (β=−0.106, p<0.01). Family support positively moderated the impact of hindrance stressors on emotional exhaustion (β=0.082, p<0.05). Conclusions During the recuperation period, after successfully controlling COVID-19 at the front line, the first-line healthcare workers should be screened through affective rumination evaluation to gain insight for targeted interventions. We find that servant leadership is beneficial in alleviating emotional exhaustion while family support worsens emotional exhaustion. We suggest that servant leadership should be further promoted in medical organisations, and family support should be applied correctly and cautiously.

Objective: Thousands of healthcare workers on the frontlines who have been battling the COVID-19 pandemic could face emotional and mental health risks even after their critical pandemic work. This study examined the impact of affective rumination on emotional exhaustion and the spillover effect of affective rumination on unhealthy food consumption among healthcare workers during recuperation.Methods: A total of 418 frontline healthcare workers from 10 Chinese medical institutions were recruited through random cluster sampling. A linear mixed model in SPSS25.0 was performed for hierarchical regression to analyze the effect of affective rumination on unhealthy food consumption via emotional exhaustion. A conditional process analysis was employed to investigate the moderating role of family support in the mediating effect of emotional exhaustion.Results: Front-line healthcare workers scored at a medium level on an emotional exhaustion scale (2.45 ± 0.88). Affective rumination mediated by emotional exhaustion had a significant positive predictive effect on unhealthy food consumption. The indirect effect accounted for ~43.9% of the total effect. Family support amplified the effect of emotional exhaustion on unhealthy food consumption (β = 0.092, p < 0.05).Conclusion: Affective rumination could be a cause of emotional exhaustion and unhealthy food consumption. First-line healthcare workers could be screened for possible emotional exhaustion through the evaluation of affective rumination in order to provide them with targeted interventions. Family support did not prove to be beneficial in all cases as it enhanced the positive effect of emotional exhaustion on unhealthy eating in the current study. Therefore, family support should be carefully integrated in future interventions.