Mental health service use and its associated factors among nurses in China: a cross-sectional survey

Yusheng Tian; Yuchen Yue; Xiaoli Liao; Jianjian Wang; Man Ye; Yiting Liu; Yamin Li; Jiansong Zhou

doi:10.7717/peerj.11181

Mental health service use and its associated factors among nurses in China: a cross-sectional survey

PeerJ. 2021 Apr 5:9:e11181. doi: 10.7717/peerj.11181. eCollection 2021.

Authors

Yusheng Tian^{1

2}, Yuchen Yue³, Xiaoli Liao^{2

4}, Jianjian Wang¹, Man Ye⁴, Yiting Liu⁴, Yamin Li⁴, Jiansong Zhou¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Psychiatry, National Clinical Research Center for Mental Disorders, The Second Xiangya Hospital of Central South University, Changsha, Hunan, China.
² Xiang Ya Nursing School, Central South University, Changsha, Hunan, China.
³ Department of Psychiatry at the Center for Addiction & Mental Health, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
⁴ Clinical Nursing Teaching and Research Section, The second Xiangya Hospital of Central South University, Changsha, Hunan, China.

Abstract

Background: To facilitate mental health service planning for nurses, data on the patterns of mental health service use (MHSU) among nurses are needed. However, MHSU among Chinese nurses has seldom been studied. Our study aimed to explore the rate of MHSU among Chinese nurses and to identify the factors associated with MHSU.

Methods: A self-designed anonymous questionnaire was used in this study. MHSU was assessed by the question, "Have you ever used any kind of mental health services, such as mental health outpatient services or psychotherapies, when you felt that your health was suffering due to stress, insomnia, or other reasons?" The answer to the question was binary (yes or no). Sleep quality, burnout, and depressive symptoms were assessed using the Chinese version of the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index , the Chinese version of the Maslach Burnout Inventory-General Survey and the two-item Patient Health Questionnaire, respectively. Chi-square tests and binary logistic regression were used for univariate and multivariate analyses.

Results: A total of 10.94% (301/2750) of the nurses reported MHSU. 10.25% (282/2750) of the nurses had poor sleep quality, burnout and depressive symptoms, and only 26.95% of these nurses reported MHSU. Very poor sleep quality (OR 9.36, 95% CI [5.38-16.29]), mid-level professional title (OR 1.48, 95% CI [1.13-1.93]) and depressive symptoms (OR 1.66, 95% CI [1.28-2.13]) were independent factors associated with MHSU.

Conclusions: Most of the nurses have experienced burnout, poor sleep quality or depressive symptoms and the MHSU rate among them was low. Interventions to improve the mental health of nurses and to promote the use of mental health services are needed.

Keywords: Burnout; Depression; Mental health service use; Nurse; Sleep quality.

Grants and funding

This work was supported by the Hunan Provincial Key Research and Development Program (NO. 2020SK2085), the Second Xiangya Hospital Nursing Research Fund (No.2019-HLKY-22), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 82071543), the Natural Science Foundation of Hunan (No. 2019JJ40424), Health Committee of Hunan (No. 202103091470) and Hunan Province innovation province construction project (No. 2019SK2334). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.