The Effect of the COVID-19 Pandemic Lockdown on Self-Harm: A Meta-Analysis.

IF 1.3 Q3 PSYCHIATRY

Alpha psychiatry Pub Date : 2025-04-22 eCollection Date: 2025-04-01 DOI:10.31083/AP39868

Jue Wang, Xueqian Zhang, Hu Deng, Yunlong Tan

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Abstract

Objective: The Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic caused a range of mental health problems, particularly self-harm. Lockdowns are the usual methods of responding to these public health emergencies. However, the effect of the COVID-19 lockdown on self-harm remains poorly characterized. This study aimed to investigate the influence of the COVID-19 pandemic on the incidence of self-harm. The findings may inform future policy development and strategies for managing pandemic-related mental health challenges.

Methods: A meta-analysis was conducted using several database searches: APA PsycINFO, Embase, PubMed, Web of Science, CNKI, and Wan Fang. Published studies with data on the incidence of self-harm during visits to medical institutions, before and during the COVID-19 pandemic, were included. The pooled risk ratio (RR) value of self-harm incidence variation before and during the COVID-19 lockdown period, expressed as the comparison of clinical institution visits before and during the pandemic, was calculated.

Results: Fifteen retrospective cohort studies with observational designs involving 253,600 participants were included. The pooled RR value of self-harm incidence variation was 1.386 (95% confidence interval (CI), 1.205-1.595, I² = 58.9%, p = 0.002). The subgroup analysis showed that "emergency department type" (p = 0.004) and "mean age of the sample" were the sources of the RR values' heterogeneity (p = 0.026).

Conclusions: Our findings suggest that the lockdown during the COVID-19 pandemic was a risk factor for self-harm. Therefore, special attention should be paid to individuals visiting the emergency department and the middle-aged and elderly populations.

The prospero registration: This study was registered in PROSPERO (CRD42023373026), https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/PROSPERO/view/CRD42023373026.

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COVID-19大流行封锁对自我伤害的影响：一项荟萃分析

目的：2019冠状病毒病（COVID-19）大流行引发了一系列心理健康问题，尤其是自我伤害。封锁是应对这些突发公共卫生事件的常用方法。然而，COVID-19封锁对自残的影响仍然不清楚。本研究旨在探讨新冠肺炎疫情对自残发生率的影响。这些发现可能为未来的政策制定和管理与大流行有关的精神卫生挑战的战略提供信息。方法：使用APA PsycINFO、Embase、PubMed、Web of Science、CNKI、万方等数据库进行meta分析。已发表的研究包含了2019冠状病毒病大流行之前和期间就诊期间自残发生率的数据。以疫情前和疫情期间的临床机构就诊次数比较，计算疫情防控前和疫情防控期间自残发生率变化的汇总风险比RR值。结果：15项回顾性队列研究纳入观察性设计，涉及253,600名参与者。自残发生率变异的合并RR值为1.386（95%可信区间为1.205 ~ 1.595,I2 = 58.9%, p = 0.002）。亚组分析显示，“急诊科类型”（p = 0.004）和“样本平均年龄”是RR值异质性的来源（p = 0.026）。结论：我们的研究结果表明，COVID-19大流行期间的封锁是自残的风险因素。因此，应特别注意急诊科就诊的个人和中老年人群。普洛斯彼罗注册：本研究在普洛斯彼罗注册（CRD42023373026）， https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/PROSPERO/view/CRD42023373026。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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Alpha psychiatry

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