Anxiety Level of University Students During COVID-19 in Saudi Arabia.

Heba Bakr Khoshaim,Sheela Sundarasen,Karuthan Chinna,Gul Mohammad Baloch,Areej Al-Sukayt,Syed Far Abid Hossain,Kamilah Kamaludin,Mohammad Nurunnabi

doi:10.3389/fpsyt.2020.579750

Abstract

COVID-19 is the worst pandemic of this millennium, and it is considered to be the “public enemy number one.” This catastrophe has changed the way we live in the blink of an eye. Not only has it threatened our existence and health status, but the damage associated with it could equally affect our economic, social, and educational systems. The focus of this study was on the anxiety level of university students during the COVID-19 pandemic in Saudi Arabia. The study was conducted between March and June 2020. A questionnaire was administered online, and 400 completed questionnaires were returned. In this study, the Zung self-rating anxiety scale was used to determine the anxiety levels among the respondents. The results indicated that about 35% of the students experienced moderate to extreme levels of anxiety. Anxiety was highly associated with age, sex, and level of education. These findings can enlighten government agencies and policy makers on the importance of making prompt, effective decisions to address students' anxiety during the COVID-19 pandemic. Researchers are encouraged to focus their future studies on how to develop strategies to boost students' resilience and enhance their adaptability skills for similar disasters in the future.

Highlights

The COVID-19 disease is the worst pandemic outbreak in the new millennium
This study examined the anxiety level among university students in Saudi Arabia, in Riyadh, at the time of the COVID19 pandemic
A variety of studies have shown that college students in Saudi Arabia share the same symptoms of anxiety and stress and recorded a prevalence of depression and anxiety ranging from 14 to 50% [e.g., [25,26,27]]

Summary

Introduction

The COVID-19 disease is the worst pandemic outbreak in the new millennium. Caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the first case was detected in December 2019 in Wuhan, China. The spread of the disease was so fast that on January 30, 2020, the WHO declared COVID-19 to be a Public Health Emergency of International Concern. As of April 2020, almost 3 million positive cases were confirmed worldwide, with about 200,000 fatalities [1]. In view of the high number of secondary cases arising from one primary case and the population being largely susceptible to infection, the WHO declared COVID-19 disease as a pandemic on March 12, 2020 [2]. To control the spread of the disease, China and many other countries imposed lockdowns, either nationwide or in places severely affected by the virus. It is estimated that as of April 2020, more than 300 million students were affected by COVID-19 globally [4]. People with severe infection were treated in hospitals, and the less

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