Mental health status among prison officers in the process of enforcing the law during COVID-19epidemic: a cross-sectional survey from China

BACKGROUND: A global public health emergency triggered by the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) epidemic may have are markable psychological impact on the population. There is still limited psychological research on police officers, especially prison officers in the process of enforcing the law. The present study aims to identify prevalence and influencing factors on mental health status among frontline prison officers in China during the prevention and control of the COVID-19 epidemic. METHODS: A cross-sectional survey with a sample of 981 frontline prison officers was conducted using snowball sampling approach. The self-administered questionnaire consisted of 4 parts: (i) informed consent form; (ii) socio-demographic section; (iii) work and life situations during the prevention and control of the COVID-19 epidemic; (iv) the Chinese version of the 12-item General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12). Univariate analysis and multivariable logistic regression were performed to identify factors influencing mental health status. RESULTS: The prevalence of being prone to mental health problems (GHQ-12 score ≥ 4) was 33.43% among frontline prison officers. The results of GHQ-12 factors analysis indicated that the prison officers suffered from psychological issues was related to anxiety and depression, which main symptoms were unhappy and depressed, lost sleep over worry and constantly under strain. Multivariate logistic regression analysis revealed that male (OR = 1.573, 95% CI:1.385–1.853), lockdown shift inside the prison(OR = 2.203, 95% CI:2.139–2.297), more night shifts (OR = 2.163, 95% CI:2.031–2.317; OR = 2.749, 95% CI:2.194–2.901), more smoking (OR = 1.100, 95% CI:1.037–2.168), poor self-reported physical condition (OR = 1.947, 95% CI:1.478–2.250), chronic or serious illness history(OR = 1.870, 95% CI:1.314–2.660; OR = 2.214, 95% CI:1.460–2.812) were risk factors for mental health among frontline prison officers, while regular diet (OR = 0.779, 95% CI:0.539–0.928), more physical exercise (OR = 0.702, 95% CI:0.548–0.899; OR = 0.641, 95% CI:0.316–0.887), more communication with family members (OR = 0.437, 95% CI:0.295–0.616) were protective factors. CONCLUSION: Chinese frontline prison officers experienced different psychological stress coming from the prevention and control of this epidemic. Therefore, continued surveillance of psychological problems and targeted mental health care for frontline prison officers were urgent. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12888-021-03679-0.