The Effect of Stress and Anxiety Caused by COVID-19 on the Quality of Life of Small Business Owners in an Area

Purpose: This is a descriptive correlation study to confirm the effect of stress and anxiety caused by COVID-19 on the quality of life of small business owners in an area under environment of COVID-19. Methods: The participants were 150 small business owners in an area. The collected data were analyzed by descriptive statistics, an independent t-test, a one-way ANOVA, Pearson's correlation coefficients, and multiple regression with the SPSS 25.0 Program. Results: The stress of small business owners averaged 3.67±0.65 out of 4 points, anxiety of COVID-19 was 2.65±0.52, and quality of life was 75.61±20.26 out of 130 points. The quality of life showed a significant negative correlation with ‘fear of infection’ (r=-.42, p<.001), ‘difficulties caused by social distancing’ (r=-.49, p<.001) in the stress subdomain, and anxiety (r=-.61, p<.001). On the other hand, stress, ‘fear of infection’ (r=.50, p<.001), ‘difficulties caused by social distancing’ (r=.60 p<.001), ‘anger against others’ (r=.35, p<.001) and anxiety showed positive correlation. Factors affecting the quality of life of the subjects were ‘fear of infection’ in the stress subdomain (β=-.23, p=.003), anxiety (β=-.45, p<.001), and residential area (J zone) (β=-.16, p=.030). These factors explained 47.0% of the variance. Conclusion: In order to enhance the quality of life of small business owners in an area, it is required to reduce stress and anxiety. In addition, it is necessary to prepare an intervention program that can reduce stress and anxiety of small business owners © 2022 Korean Academy of Community Health Nursing