The Prevalence of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder in the General Population during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Systematic Review and Single-Arm Meta-Analysis

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the prevalence of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in the general population during the COVID-19 pandemic by a systematic review and single-arm meta-analysis. METHODS: CNKI, PubMed, EMBASE, and MEDLINE were searched to collect literature on the prevalence of PTSD in the general population during the epidemic. The retrieval time is from the database construction to 31/08/2020. Meta-analysis was performed on the included articles by using Review Manger 5.3 and Stata 16.0 software. RESULTS: The prevalence of PTSD in the general population during the COVID-19 pandemic was 15% (95% CI: 11-21%, p<0.001). CONCLUSION: The COVID-19 pandemic brought certain mental pain to general population, leading to a rise in the incidence of PTSD in a short time.