Prevalence of Anxiety associated with COVID-19 Pandemic among University Students of Karachi

Abstract

The outbreak of corona virus made quite an impact on not only physical health but additionally mental health and psychological wellness. Objective: To determine the anxiety of corona virus among university students. Methods: The observational cross-sectional study was conducted. Data were obtained from different universities in Karachi. Undergraduate and postgraduate students of engineering and business administration were asked through questionnaire about the impact of COVID-19 after the consent from students and respective university. To assess the anxiety among the students valid and reliable corona virus anxiety scale (CAS) was used.385 participants were included with fulfilled inclusion criteria. Results: Overall 385 complete responses were obtained. Among population male gender predominated with a frequency of (n=208) 54.0% and females were (n=177) 46.0%. According to marital status and level of education, the majority (72.5%) of participants was single and of undergraduate level (56.4%) in education. The overall prevalence of anxiety was 13.5%. It was found that postgraduate students were less likely to be anxious about COVID-19 when compared with undergraduate students (OR = 0.34, p-value=0.002). Moreover, students whose family members and friends diagnosed with coronavirus were unlikely to have anxiety when compared to students with friends and family COVID-19 negative (OR = 0.32, p-value=0.004). Conclusions: It was concluded from this study that students possess adequate knowledge of COVID-19, instead they are psychologically anxious. Anxiety, psychological distress and other symptoms of mental illness are correlated with the outspread of any infectious disease.