Global Prevalence of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) during and after Coronavirus Pandemic: A Study Protocol for a Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Studies conducted on severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS), and COVID-19 epidemics have shown PTSD can occur during and after infectious diseases. However, more studies are needed to explore PTSD during and after COVID-19 outbreak. The objective of this study is to provide a protocol of systematic review and meta-analysis to report the global prevalence of PTSD during and after coronavirus pandemics among general population, health care workers, survivors, or patients with coronaviruses.

We include all studies that reported the prevalence of PTSD during and after coronavirus pandemics and search databases, including Web of Science, PubMed, Scopus, Embase, and Google Scholar from first of November 2002 to May 18, 2020. Two authors independently use relevant checklists to quality assessment of the included studies and extract data. We use the graphical methods and fixed or random effect models to aggregate prevalence estimates. Also, we will assess heterogeneity between the included studies using the I2 heterogeneity statistic and use subgroup and sensitivity analysis to assess the sources of heterogeneity.

We infer that PTSD is a common experience during and after infectious disease pandemics, especially COVID-19. The findings of this study can be used by health policymakers and other stakeholders and will provide a path to future studies.