{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,8]],"date-time":"2026-07-08T06:18:13Z","timestamp":1783491493962,"version":"3.55.0"},"reference-count":19,"publisher":"Frontiers Media SA","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,8]],"date-time":"2026-07-08T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1783468800000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["frontiersin.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Front. Psychol."],"abstract":"<jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Introduction<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>Firefighters in China are routinely exposed to physically and emotionally demanding situations, yet long-running tracking data on their mental-health profile are still scarce. Most published Chinese firefighter studies are cross-sectional, single-site, or limited to a particular incident. We took advantage of an annual occupational-health screening program to look at the Symptom Checklist-90 (SCL-90) profile of firefighters from two coastal cities, with the explicit goal of asking whether the symptom picture is stable across years and which factors drive it.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Methods<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>Annual SCL-90 records collected from 2021 and 2025 were pooled into a de-identified dataset. After deduplication and the removal of implausible age entries, 3,155 records from 1,911 unique firefighters remained. 805 firefighters had at least two assessments, forming a longitudinal subset. We computed standard Chinese screening criteria (total score \u2265160, positive items \u226543, any subscale \u22652), compared subscale levels across gender, city and year, ran multivariable regressions, and used paired-sample t-tests and a linear mixed-effects model on the longitudinal subsample.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Results<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>\n                      Across the full sample, 15.2% of records were positive on the composite screening rule and 7.3% met the classical total-score threshold of 160. The most elevated subscale was Obsessive-Compulsive (\n                      <jats:italic>M<\/jats:italic>\n                      \u202f=\u202f1.38; 11.4% scoring \u22652), followed by Interpersonal Sensitivity, Depression and Hostility\u2014a configuration that closely mirrors what previous studies of emergency personnel have reported. Total score declined steadily from 2021 (\n                      <jats:italic>M<\/jats:italic>\n                      \u202f=\u202f126.3) to 2025 (\n                      <jats:italic>M<\/jats:italic>\n                      \u202f=\u202f103.0), with a multivariable-adjusted year coefficient of \u22120.031 on the General Severity Index (\n                      <jats:italic>p<\/jats:italic>\n                      \u202f&amp;lt;\u202f0.001). Cross-city differences were small but consistent (Cohen\u2019s\n                      <jats:italic>d<\/jats:italic>\n                      \u202f\u2248\u202f0.15\u20130.24). Among the 805 longitudinally tracked firefighters, within-person scores tended to decrease modestly (mean \u0394total\u202f=\u202f\u22123.45,\n                      <jats:italic>t<\/jats:italic>\n                      (804)\u202f=\u202f3.21,\n                      <jats:italic>p<\/jats:italic>\n                      \u202f=\u202f0.001), with 32.9% improving, 46.2% staying stable and 20.9% worsening on a \u00b15-point criterion.\n                    <\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Discussion<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>Chinese firefighters in this five-year cohort show a psychopathological profile broadly comparable to that of firefighters in other settings, with obsessive-compulsive, interpersonal-sensitivity and hostility features standing out. The observed downward trend is encouraging but should be interpreted cautiously\u2014sampling shifted from a small clinically-referred group in 2021 to a population-style screening by 2025. Roughly one in five tracked firefighters worsened over the observation window, which is the more actionable finding for occupational mental-health teams. Implications for early identification and stepped-care intervention are discussed.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.3389\/fpsyg.2026.1906037","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,8]],"date-time":"2026-07-08T05:54:19Z","timestamp":1783490059000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Psychopathological symptoms and their five-year change in a tracking cohort of Chinese firefighters: a multi-site observational study using the SCL-90"],"prefix":"10.3389","volume":"17","author":[{"given":"Wei","family":"Chen","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Hangzhou Medical College","place":["Hangzhou, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Lin","family":"Tan","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Jiangbei District Positive Psychology Research Center","place":["Ningbo, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"HuiMing","family":"Liu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Xiangshan Fire and Rescue Brigade","place":["Ningbo, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Dian","family":"Chen","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Economics and Management, Southeast University","place":["Nanjing, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Yiting","family":"Guo","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Management, Xiamen University","place":["Xiamen, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1965","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,8]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"259","DOI":"10.1002\/wps.20656","article-title":"Post-traumatic stress disorder: a state-of-the-art review of evidence and challenges","volume":"18","author":"Bryant","year":"2019","journal-title":"World Psychiatry"},{"key":"ref2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"1420834","DOI":"10.3389\/fpsyg.2024.1420834","article-title":"Psychological status of general population 1 year after the outbreak of COVID-19: a cross-sectional study based on SCL-90","volume":"15","author":"Chen","year":"2024","journal-title":"Front. 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Epidemiol."}],"container-title":["Frontiers in Psychology"],"original-title":[],"link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/www.frontiersin.org\/articles\/10.3389\/fpsyg.2026.1906037\/full","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,8]],"date-time":"2026-07-08T05:54:20Z","timestamp":1783490060000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/www.frontiersin.org\/articles\/10.3389\/fpsyg.2026.1906037\/full"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,8]]},"references-count":19,"alternative-id":["10.3389\/fpsyg.2026.1906037"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/fpsyg.2026.1906037","relation":{},"ISSN":["1664-1078"],"issn-type":[{"value":"1664-1078","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,8]]},"article-number":"1906037"}}