The mental health impact of the COVID-19 epidemic on hong kong youth: Preliminary results from the hong kong youth mental health epidemiological study (HKYES)

Introduction The 2019 coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is a global health crisis that originated in China. As an adjacent city to the origin of COVID-19, Hong Kong has been facing different public health challenges raised by the epidemic. Objectives This paper examined the prevalence of common physical symptoms, psychological symptoms, somatic symptoms, and health anxiety among the Hong Kong youth population. Methods HKYES is an on-going territory-wide epidemiological study collecting youth mental health data with randomly stratified sampling. Participants aged 15-24 years were to complete a physical symptom checklist, Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale (DASS-21), Insomnia Severity Index (ISI), Patient Health Questionnaire-15 (PHQ-15), and Short Health Anxiety Inventory (SHAI). Results A total of 594 participants have completed the survey since April 2020. The three most common physical symptoms were headache (n=106, 17.8%), fever (n=94, 15.8%) and fatigue (n=78, 13.1%). The mean scores of DASS depression, anxiety and stress subscales were 7.98 (SD 8.14), 5.81 (SD 6.32), and 8.83 (SD 7.93) respectively. Among all, 135 (22.8%) participants reported moderate to severe levels of depressive symptoms, 133 (22.4%) reported moderate to severe levels of anxiety symptoms, and 71 (12%) reported moderate to severe levels of stress. There were 40 (6.7%) and 60 (10.1%) participants showing significant levels of insomnia and somatic symptoms, while around one-third of the participants reported a high level of health anxiety. Conclusions Youth is at risk of severe psychological impact during the coronavirus. Monitoring the mental health trajectory for youth should become routine practice during times of crisis.