Posttraumatic stress symptoms among Chinese university students during the COVID-19 pandemic: Prevalence, correlates, and mental health help-seeking

Table 1 Characteristics of the sample of university students, rates of posttraumatic stress symptoms among different subgroups, and factors associated with posttraumatic stress symptoms in multiple logistic regression analysis, n (%)

Characteristics		Respondents	Respondents with PTSSs	χ2	P value	OR (95%CI)	P value
Sex	Male	1550 (61.8)	412 (26.6)			1
	Female	957 (38.2)	290 (30.3)	4.067	0.044	1.24 (1.03, 1.49)	0.024
Age (years)	≤ 18	820 (32.7)	203 (24.8)			1
	≥ 19	1687 (67.3)	499 (29.6)	6.367	0.012	1.23 (1.01, 1.50)	0.023
Educational major	Medicine	106 (4.2)	36 (34.0)
	Non-medicine	2401 (95.8)	666 (27.7)	1.951	0.163
Category of students	Undergraduates	2278 (90.9)	622 (27.3)
	Postgraduates	229 (9.1)	80 (34.9)	6.008	0.014
Habitual residence	City	1323 (52.8)	363 (27.4)
	Village	856 (34.1)	243 (28.4)
	Urban-rural fringe	328 (13.1)	96 (29.3)	0.533	0.766
Geographic region of residence	Wuhan	137 (5.5)	49 (35.8)
	Other regions of Hubei	472 (18.8)	128 (27.1)
	Provinces apart from Hubei	1898 (75.7)	525 (27.7)	4.389	0.111
Residential or travel history in Wuhan from December 2019 to January 2020	Lived in/visited Wuhan before; now in Wuhan	210 (8.4)	80 (38.1)
	Lived in/visited Wuhan before; not in Wuhan now	1920 (76.6)	503 (26.2)
	Never lived in/visited Wuhan	377 (15.0)	119 (31.6)	16.085	< 0.001
Co-habitation status	Living with family	2449 (97.7)	670 (27.4)			1
	Living with others or alone	58 (2.3)	32 (55.2)	21.742	< 0.001	2.18 (1.25, 3.81)	0.006
Self-rated family economic status	High	473 (18.9)	103 (21.8)			1
	Fair	1474 (58.8)	402 (27.3)			1.14 (0.88, 1.48)
	Low	560 (22.3)	197 (35.2)	23.789	< 0.001	1.48 (1.10, 1.99)	0.009
Self-rated interpersonal relationship	Good	1839 (73.4)	435 (23.7)			1
	Fair	632 (25.2)	243 (38.4)			1.89 (1.55, 2.31)	< 0.001
	Poor	36 (1.4)	24 (66.7)	78.154	< 0.001	3.65 (1.72, 7.73)	0.001
Self-rated severity of local pandemic	Mild	2268 (90.5)	596 (26.3)			1
	Severe	163 (6.5)	68 (41.7)			1.75 (1.25, 2.45)	0.001
	Very severe	76 (3.0)	38 (50.0)	36.793	< 0.001	2.06 (1.25, 3.39)	0.004
Family members diagnosed with COVID-19	No	2411 (96.2)	651 (27.0)			1
	Yes	96 (3.8)	51 (53.1)	31.252	< 0.001	2.19 (1.40, 3.43)	0.001
Friends or classmates diagnosed with COVID-19	No	2202 (87.8)	586 (26.6)
	Yes	305 (12.2)	116 (38.0)	17.332	< 0.001

PTSSs: Posttraumatic stress symptoms; COVID-19: Coronavirus disease 2019; OR: Odds ratio.