The Spread of COVID-19 in the Italian Population: Anxiety, Depression, and Post-traumatic Stress Symptoms

Abstract

The first case of COVID-19 in Italy emerged at the end of January 2020. 1 Following a series of increasingly severe restrictions, a new decree on March 9, 2020, imposed home lockdown on the entire nation. 2 The COVID-19 outbreak, similarly to previous epidemics, can trigger psychological disorders such as anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in exposed individuals in the short as well as in the long-term. 3 This study aimed to investigate the prevalence of posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) in the general Italian population and to explore the variables such as sociodemographic features, COVID-19-related aspects, quality of life, and health-related aspects that could predict the likelihood of PTSS occurrence. Moreover, anxiety and depressive symptoms, often observed in people exposed to highly stressful events, were evaluated. Data were collected using an anonymous online survey from March 19, 2020, to April 5, 2020. A snowball sampling strategy was employed, wherein the participants were initially recruited via online advertisements and were encouraged to pass the survey link to others. Responses of 1,321 participants were included in the final data set. Participants were asked to provide sociodemographic information and complete (1) COVID-19-related questions, (2) quality of life and health-related visual analogue scales, (3) State-Trait Anxiety Inventory-Form Y1, (4) Beck Depression Inventory (BDI-II), and (5) PTSD Checklist for DSM-5 (PCL-5) in order to assess PTSS. This study was approved by the University of Turin ethics committee and was conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki. All participants provided written informed consent. The total sample had a mean age of 35.1 (SD 14) years; 69% (922) of participants were females, and 71% (933) were from Northern Italy. Most of the participants had a degree or

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Application of the Stress and Anxiety to Viral Epidemics-6 (SAVE-6) and Coronavirus Anxiety Scale (CAS) to Measure Anxiety in Cancer Patient in Response to COVID-19

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