Anxiety and fear related to coronavirus disease 2019 assessment in the Spanish population: A cross-sectional study

Abstract

Background: The coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic has affected millions of people worldwide, compromising the responsiveness of governments and states and thus generating anxiety and fear at the population level. Objective: To assess the level of anxiety and fear of coronavirus disease 2019 in a Spanish adult population group. Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study, using the anxiety and fear of COVID-19 assessment scale (AMICO, for its acronym in Spanish). The sample was composed of 1038 subjects. Univariate and bivariate statistical analyses were performed, after analysis of normality in the data distribution. Categorical regression analyses were also executed. Findings: The total sample size was 1036 subjects, 56.3% was made up of females, with a mean age of 48.11 years (SD = 15.13). The mean score obtained on the AMICO scale was 5.54 points (SD = 1.83), with a score range between 1.22 and 10. Bivariate analysis only demonstrated statistically significant differences in the mean score of the scale and the variables: sex, marital status, work area and academic level. The executed categorical regression analysis revealed an R2 value of 0.75 and a significance of p = 0.00. Conclusions: The results obtained show that the Spanish population presents moderate anxiety levels to coronavirus disease 2019. Women, married, with primary and/or secondary education level, and working in the public transport, services and/or hospitality sectors are more likely to have high levels of fear and anxiety. Application to Practice: These results could be used for therapeutic and preventive psychological interventions, and also to plan new research under sex perspective and observing the socio-economic environment.

Measuring anxiety and fear of Covid-19 among older people: psychometric properties of anxiety and fear of Covid-19 scale (AMICO) in Spain

“…Similar to data reported for the general population with the AMICO scale [ 34 , 35 ], significantly higher values for anxiety and fear on the COVID-19 were found in females than in males. This was to be expected based on the higher levels of anxiety that the female population tends to manifest in a generalised way in almost all social contexts and adult age groups [ 63 , 64 ].…”

“…The levels of anxiety and fear of the COVID-19 seem to be lower for this age group over 65 (mean = 5.11 ± 1.83) than for the general population, as compared to the data reported by the authors of the AMICO scale in their previous study [ 34 , 35 ], who found mean values of 5.54 (± 1.83) and a range with higher upper limit values (from 1.22 to 10 points). Other studies with older populations also found lower values of fear in older adults than other lower age groups or compared to the general population [ 22 , 23 , 32 , 58 , 59 ], which is corroborated by the meta-analysis by Lin et al [ 36 ] with data from the use of the FCV-19 scale in eleven studies from different countries and general population samples of different ages.…”

The Role of Self-Care Activities (SASS-14) in Depression (PHQ-9): Evidence From Slovakia During the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…These findings support an interesting fact that females and young people were at higher risk of depression despite their higher levels of SLP and IICS. On the other hand, vulnerability of females and young people to psychological symptoms (including depression) during the COVID-19 pandemic was also demonstrated in many other studies ( 26 , 47 – 50 ). Xiong et al ( 10 ) also confirmed that common risk factors for mental discomfort during the pandemic were female gender, younger age (under 40 years), but also chronic or psychiatric disease and frequent exposure to social media and news concerning COVID-19.…”

Surgeons’ non-transparent facemasks challenge the physician–patient relationship in the orthopedic outpatient clinic of a tertiary university hospital during the COVID-19 pandemic: a prospective cohort study of 285 patients

“…Notably, female patients also reported feeling less safe with the transparent surgeon’s facemask, indicating a critical need for safety that is seemingly more pronounced in female than in male patients and should be strongly considered when trying to overcome the communication barrier with new models of facemasks. These findings are in line with previous studies, which have shown that women experience higher levels of fear and anxiety during the COVID-19 pandemic ( 20 ) and local studies, which have shown that women are more likely to wear masks in public than men, indicating their potentially higher risk awareness and need for safety ( 21 , 22 ).…”