Prevalence of Anxiety and Relationship of Anxiety with Coping Styles and Related Factors in Medical Students During COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

Objective: To investigate the prevalence of anxiety in medical school students during the (Coronavirus Disease-19) COVID-19 outbreak, as well as the relationship between “clinically significant anxiety” and coping styles and selected features.
 Materials and Methods: An online questionnaire was performed to evaluate 713 medical school students. The questionnaire included the subsections of sociodemographic data, items evaluating selected features, Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 (GAD-7) Scale and Coping Styles Scale Brief Form (The Brief COPE). 
 Results: Of the 713 participants, 285 (39,97%) were normal, 261 (36,61%) were mild, 123 (17,25%) were moderate, and 44 (6,17%) had severe anxiety. 167 (23,42%) of the participants had GAD-7 scores ≥ 10, so they had a "clinically significant anxiety" and these individuals needed clinical evaluation in terms of GAD. Being female and younger was associated with significant clinical anxiety.
 More adoption of the ineffective coping strategies such as focus on and venting of emotions, substance use, behavioral disengagement, mental disengagement, and the problem-focused coping strategies such as suppression of competing activities are considered predictors of “clinically significant anxiety”. On the contrary, those who did not have “clinically significant anxiety” have more adopted problem-focused styles such as planning and using instrumental social support, and emotional-focused styles such as positive reinterpretation and acceptance.
 Conclusion: Our results emphasize the factors and functional coping styles that should be considered to protect the mental health of medical school students while fighting a disaster that has a major impact on society worldwide.