Aruna Jothishanmugam*, Amani Abdelgader Mohammed Abdelgader, Hawa Ibrahim Abd AllaHamid, Soad Mohamed Abdalla Alnassry and Wafa Abdein Humza Bashir
The COVID - 19 pandemic and lockdown have had profound effects on everyday life worldwide. The aim of this study is to examine the anxiety level of the people during initial period of COVID - 19. The cross sectional online survey was done using the zung Self - rating Anxiety Scale (SAS) and zung self - rating depression scale. Out of 250 responders, 19.2 %, 6.4 %, and 0.8 % experienced mild, moderate, marked to severe levels of anxiety. According to analysis, female (OR = 1.3, 95 % CI = 0.55 – 3.3, P = 0.524), above the age of 59 years (OR = 1.6, CI = (0.33 – 7.72), P = 0.555), were experiencing moderate level of anxiety when compared with others. Related to depression, 36.4 %, 16.4 % and 5.2 % experienced mild, moderate, marked to severe levels of depression. The findings show that female (OR = 0.79, 95 %, CI = 0.36 – 1.7, P = 0.845), above the age of 59 years (OR = 4.4, CI = 0.75 – 25.8, P = 0.101) were experiencing marked level of depression than others. The main causes for anxiety and depression among the people is due to financial constraints, dual role of women, work from home, and fear of infection, unemployment and online education.
