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Anxiety among Adolescents and Young Adults during COVID-19 Pandemic: A Multi-Country Survey

Sabbagh HJ 1 , Abdelaziz W 2 , Alghamdi W 3 , Quritum M 2 , AlKhateeb NA 4 , Abourdan J 5 Show all authors , Qureshi N 6 , Qureshi S 7 , Hamoud AHN 8 , Mahmoud N 9 , Odeh R 10 , Al-Khanati NM 11 , Jaber R 12 , Balkhoyor AL 13 , Shabi M 14 , Folayan MO 15 , Alade O 16 , Gomaa N 17 , Alnahdi R 18 , Mahmoud NA 19 , El Wazziki H 20 , Alnaas M 21 , Samodien B 22 , Mahmoud RA 23 , Abu Assab N 24 , Saad S 25 , Alhachim SG 26 , El Tantawi M 2

Affiliations 

  • 1 Department of Pediatric Dentistry, Faculty of Dentistry, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah 21589, Saudi Arabia
  • 2 Department of Pediatric Dentistry and Dental Public Health, Faculty of Dentistry, Alexandria University, Alexandria 21561, Egypt
  • 3 Division of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah 21589, Saudi Arabia
  • 4 Faculty of Medicine, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah 21589, Saudi Arabia
  • 5 Medical Faculty, Istanbul Medipol University, Istanbul 34230, Turkey
  • 6 City Quay Dental Practice and Implant Centre, Dundee DD1 3JA, UK
  • 7 Department of Education, University of Kashmir, Srinagar 190006, India
  • 8 Faculty of Dentistry, Alexandria University, Alexandria 21561, Egypt
  • 9 Faculty of Dentistry, National Ribat University, Khartoum 1111, Sudan
  • 10 College of Dentistry, Ajman University, Ajman P.O. Box 346, United Arab Emirates
  • 11 Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Faculty of Dentistry, Syrian Private University, Damascus 368, Syria
  • 12 General Courses, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah 21589, Saudi Arabia
  • 13 Faculty of Engineering, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah 21589, Saudi Arabia
  • 14 University of Jeddah, Jeddah 23218, Saudi Arabia
  • 15 Department of Child Dental Health, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria
  • 16 Department of Preventive and Community Dentistry, Faculty of Dentistry, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria
  • 17 Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry, University of Western Ontario, London, ON N6A 3K7, Canada
  • 18 Department of Dental Surgery, Oman Dental College, Muscat 116, Oman
  • 19 Institute of Creative Art and Design (ICAD), Kuala Lumpur Campus, UCSI University, Kuala Lumpur 56000, Malaysia
  • 20 Department of Cereal Plant Pathology, National Institute of Agricultural Research, Rabat 10090, Morocco
  • 21 Division of Imaging Science and Technology, School of Medicine, University of Dundee, Dundee DD1 4HN, UK
  • 22 Western Cape Education Department, Cape Town 8001, South Africa
  • 23 Musculoskeletal Center, International Medical Center, Jeddah 21451, Saudi Arabia
  • 24 Schools of Awqaf, Directorate of Education, Jerusalem, Israel
  • 25 Department of Pharmacology, Institute of Neuroscience and Physiology, University of Gothenburg, Box 431, 40530 Gothenburg, Sweden
  • 26 Health Education Services, Ingham County, Lansing, MI 48933, USA
Int J Environ Res Public Health, 2022 Aug 24;19(17).
PMID: 36078253 DOI: 10.3390/ijerph191710538

Abstract

(1) Background: Adolescents-and-young-adults (AYA) are prone to anxiety. This study assessed AYA's level of anxiety during the COVID-19 pandemic; and determined if anxiety levels were associated with country-income and region, socio-demographic profile and medical history of individuals. (2) Methods: A survey collected data from participants in 25 countries. Dependent-variables included general-anxiety level, and independent-variables included medical problems, COVID-19 infection, age, sex, education, and country-income-level and region. A multilevel-multinomial-logistic regression analysis was conducted to determine the association between dependent, and independent-variables. (3) Results: Of the 6989 respondents, 2964 (42.4%) had normal-anxiety, and 2621 (37.5%), 900 (12.9%) and 504 (7.2%) had mild, moderate and severe-anxiety, respectively. Participants from the African region (AFR) had lower odds of mild, moderate and severe than normal-anxiety compared to those from the Eastern-Mediterranean-region (EMR). Also, participants from lower-middle-income-countries (LMICs) had higher odds of mild and moderate than normal-anxiety compared to those from low-income-countries (LICs). Females, older-adolescents, with medical-problems, suspected-but-not-tested-for-COVID-19, and those with friends/family-infected with COVID-19 had significantly greater odds of different anxiety-levels. (4) Conclusions: One-in-five AYA had moderate to severe-anxiety during the COVID-19-pandemic. There were differences in anxiety-levels among AYAs by region and income-level, emphasizing the need for targeted public health interventions based on nationally-identified priorities.

* Title and MeSH Headings from MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.

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