Fear and Anxiety Caused by COVID-19 in the Iranian Society and the Influential Factors

Abstract

Background: Due to the changing nature of the spread of emerging infectious diseases, such crises could cause significant fear, especially when the disease is associated with high mortality. Fear and anxiety adversely affect health. Objectives: The present study aimed to investigate the fear and anxiety caused by COVID-19 in the Iranian society and the influential factors in this regard. Methods: This correlational study was conducted on 458 participants who were recruited for an online survey. Data were collected using a researcher-made questionnaire of COVID-19 fear and Beck's anxiety inventory. Data analysis was performed in SPSS version 23 using descriptive statistics (frequency, percentage, mean, and standard deviation) and inferential statistics, including t-test and multiple comparisons. Results: The prevalence of fear and anxiety was less than 20%. The correlations between the anxiety scores and fear of COVID-19 with demographic variables indicated that the COVID-19 fear scores had a weak correlation with an appeal to religion and efforts to prevent COVID-19 (P ≤ 0.05), while no correlation was observed with the other variables. In addition, the anxiety scores had weak, inverse correlations with the effort to prevent COVID-19 and satisfaction with the government’s effort (P ≤ 0.05). Conclusions: According to the results, the fear of COVID-19 and the subsequent anxiety is mild in the Iranian society. Low anxiety and fear caused by the disease could lead to negligence and disregarding health standards, which will increase the number of these patients in the community.