Anxiety and perceived risk during COVID-19 outbreak

  1. Chetna Malhotra
  2. Isha Chaudhry
  3. Semra Ozdemir
  4. Irene Teo
  5. Eric Andrew Finkelstein

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Abstract

The uncertainty around coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19) has triggered anxiety among public. We aimed to assess the variation in anxiety and risk perceptions of COVID-19 among adults in Singapore. We administered a web-survey to a panel of residents between 31 March and 14 April 2020. We assessed anxiety using general anxiety disorder (GAD) scale and assessed participants’ risk perceptions regarding severity of the outbreak. Of the 1,017 participants, 23% reported moderate to severe anxiety [GAD score≥10]. A high proportion reported perceived likelihood of ICU admission (46%) and death (30%) upon getting COVID-19. Results from path analysis showed that younger participants, those with chronic conditions, those living with children and low perceived trust in government response to COVID-19 had a significantly higher anxiety mediated by their perceived risk of dying upon getting COVID-19. These results highlight the need for management of anxiety through adequate and effective risk communication for the general public.

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  1. ScreenIT

    SciScore for 10.1101/2020.07.24.20161315: (What is this?)

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

    Table 1: Rigor

    Institutional Review Board Statementnot detected.
    Randomizationnot detected.
    Blindingnot detected.
    Power Analysisnot detected.
    Sex as a biological variablenot detected.

    Table 2: Resources

    No key resources detected.

    Results from OddPub: We did not detect open data. We also did not detect open code. Researchers are encouraged to share open data when possible (see Nature blog).

    Results from LimitationRecognizer: We detected the following sentences addressing limitations in the study:
    A limitation of our study is that due to its cross-sectional design, we cannot infer causal relationship between perceived risk and anxiety. Although, we used a convenience sample of adults, our results concur with studies from other countries showing high population-level anxiety (Qian et al., 2020). In conclusion, we find high anxiety among younger adults, those with chronic conditions, living with children and with low trust in the government response to control the outbreak. Effective communication should adequately convey the accurate information on risk of dying due to COVID-19 to address anxiety among public. Interventions to manage anxiety among younger adults are critical to improve their overall well-being during this and any future infectious disease outbreaks.

    Results from TrialIdentifier: No clinical trial numbers were referenced.

    Results from Barzooka: We did not find any issues relating to the usage of bar graphs.

    Results from JetFighter: We did not find any issues relating to colormaps.

    Results from rtransparent:
    • Thank you for including a conflict of interest statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
    • Thank you for including a funding statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
    • No protocol registration statement was detected.

    About SciScore

    SciScore is an automated tool that is designed to assist expert reviewers by finding and presenting formulaic information scattered throughout a paper in a standard, easy to digest format. SciScore checks for the presence and correctness of RRIDs (research resource identifiers), and for rigor criteria such as sex and investigator blinding. For details on the theoretical underpinning of rigor criteria and the tools shown here, including references cited, please follow this link.

  2. Version published to 10.1101/2020.07.24.20161315v1 on medRxiv