Anxiety among the general population during Coronavirus-19 Disease in Saudi Arabia: Implications for a Mental Support Program

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Abstract

Background

The 2019 outbreak of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is an worldwide health emergency that threatens mental health of general public. Research data are required to establish evidence-based approaches to alleviate the symptoms of anxiety during the outbreak. This study aimed to survey the general public in Saudi Arabia to help in understanding their levels of anxiety during the COVID-19 outbreak.

Methods

The researchers performed an on-line survey using snowball sampling methods from April 1 through April 10, 2020. The online survey collected demographics information data, while the Social Anxiety Questionnaire for Adults (SAQ-A30) was used to measure anxiety level.

Results

This study consisted of 709 respondents from different regions of Saudi Arabia. The general population reported mild to moderate rates of anxiety. Married respondents were associated with a significantly higher level of anxiety (p<0.05).

Conclusions

The respondents reported mild to moderate anxiety during the outbreak of COVID-19 in Saudi Arabia.

Implication for practice

The results of this study identify the implications to lower levels of anxiety that may be used during the COVID-19 outbreak to develop mental health support programs to improve the mental health of vulnerable groups.

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  1. SciScore for 10.1101/2020.05.07.20090225: (What is this?)

    Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.

    Table 1: Rigor

    Institutional Review Board StatementConsent: The first section includes the cover letter form and the consent form and the demographic sheet describing the purpose and procedures of the study, while the second section includes the social Anxiety Questionnaire (SAQ-A30)
    IRB: Acceptance of expedited ethics was received from the Institutional Review Board (IRB) of the University of Hail (H-2020-080).
    Randomizationnot detected.
    Blindingnot detected.
    Power AnalysisIn order to conduct a power analysis for this study, the G*power software was used to suppose sample size, suppose 0.95 power with an alpha error of 0.05 and a medium effect size of (0.5), the total sample size will require 700 subjects to have …