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Table 2 Frequency of themes on the reasons for calling the hotline

From: The qualitative analysis of characteristic of callers to a psychological hotline at the early stage of COVID-19 in China

Themes

Subthemes

Frequency

n (%)a

Seeking practical help

Ask questions about the epidemic itself

198 (12.7)

Ask how to protect themselves from being infected

156 (10.0)

Ask whether their symptoms stood for infection

101 (6.5)

Ask whether they had developed mental disorders

87 (5.6)

Ask information about hospitals and medical care

74 (4.7)

Ask the new policy under the epidemic

45 (2.9)

How to educate their kids

24 (1.5)

Total Seeking practical help

685 (44.0)

Needing support around their emotion

The epidemic has made them upset

314 (20.2)

Uncomfortable when knowing the latest information of COVID-19

197 (12.6)

Worried about their life condition including work, study

134 (8.6)

Worried about their family members’ health

96 (6.2)

Scared of being isolated

67 (4.3)

Angry about someone without protective measures

65 (4.2)

Worried about the recurrence of their psychiatric disease

47 (3.0)

Angry about the shortage of protective material

43 (2.8)

Problems of interpersonal relationship, including friends, lovers, family members, colleagues

35 (2.2)

Missing of their dead loved ones

9 (0.6)

Total Needing support around their emotion

1007 (64.6)

Sleep problems

Life routines were disrupted

119 (7.6)

Changed emotion made them hard to sleep

105 (6.7)

Specific events made them hard to sleep

67 (4.3)

Relapse of pre-existing mental illness

26 (1.7)

Total Sleep problems

317 (20.3)

Consulting with others’ issues instead of themselves

–

11 (0.7)

  1. a Multiple options could be selected, therefore percentages may add to greater than 100