Perceived Stress, Anxiety and Insomnia among Nursing Staff in Saudi Arabia during the 2019 Novel Coronavirus Disease Pandemic

Abstract

Background: Nursing staff exposed to 2019 novel coronavirus disease which might be at the increased risk of development mental health problems such as stress, anxiety and insomnia. Objectives: To estimate the spread of stress, anxiety and insomnia among the nursing staff who are working at Asir central hospital, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Methods: This study was a descriptive cross-sectional study, that involved with a 53 (44 Female and 9 Male) nurses who are working at Asir central hospital, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. A convenient sampling technique was used to select the participants during the period from October to the mid of November 2020. A structured closed-ended questionnaire was used related with three standard tools (The Perceived Stress Scale, Generalized Anxiety Disorder and the Insomnia severity index). Results: The results revealed that 90.6% of participants had moderate stress and 7.5% showed low stress. Regarding anxiety, 37% of nurses had mild anxiety, 28.3% and 34% had moderate and severe anxiety, respectively. Moreover, sub-threshold insomnia was observed in 60.4% and clinical insomnia in 15% of study candidates. Additionally, a statistically significant association was found between levels of stress, anxiety and insomnia and the age of the studied nurses (P = 0.00). Conclusion: The results of this study showed that the spread of stress, anxiety and insomnia, was higher than some studies which have been reported in the previous researches. Significant difference was observed between mental distress and age of nurses, while there was no significant difference between the studied mental health problems and gender.