Relationship between depression, anxiety and emotional exhaustion among infectious disease nurses: a network analysis

作者：Yalan Huang, X. Luo, Ruisi Xu, Xueling Xia, Y Li, Ke Li, Jing Yi, Qian Li, Xu Ge, Zhihan Zhao, Liu Li, Mengting Chen · 发表于：BMC Psychiatry · 年份：2026 · DOI：10.1186/s12888-026-07996-0 · 研究领域：Mental Health Research Topics、COVID-19 and Mental Health、Workplace Health and Well-being

BACKGROUND: Even after the COVID-19 outbreak, mental health challenges are both serious and widespread among medical staff in infectious disease departments, with nurses being particularly affected. There has been limited research on the relationships between common conditions such as depression, anxiety, and emotional exhaustion. Network analysis (NA) is a novel method for quantifying the relationships between mental variables using mathematical approaches. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between depression, anxiety and emotional exhaustion symptoms through NA among nurses working in infectious disease departments. METHOD: Employing a cross-sectional design, we utilized validated scales to assess depression, anxiety and emotional exhaustion in a sample of 1,849 infectious disease nurses. We assessed depressive symptoms using the 9-item Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9), anxiety symptoms with the Generalized anxiety disorder-7 (GAD-7), and burnout symptoms with the Chinese version of the Maslach Burnout Inventory-Human Service Survey (MBI-HSS). Interactions between depression, anxiety and emotional exhaustion were constructed using NA. In the network model, central and bridge symptoms were identified using the R package qgraph. The network structure’s stability was assessed with the help of the bootnet R package. RESULTS: This study revealed a prevalence of clinically significant depressive symptoms (24.61%) and anxiety (9.30%). The average score ...