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

Heba Jafar Sabbagh, Wafaa Abdelaziz, Waleed Alghamdi, Maryam Quritum, Nada AbuBakr AlKhateeb, Joud Abourdan, Nafeesa Qureshi, Shabnum Qureshi, Ahmed H. N. Hamoud, Nada Mahmoud, Ruba Odeh, Nuraldeen Maher Al-Khanati, Rawiah Jaber, Abdulrahman Loaie Balkhoyor, Mohammed Shabi, Morenike Oluwatoyin Folayan, Omolola Alade, Noha Gomaa, Raqiya Alnahdi, Nawal A. Mahmoud, Hanane El Wazziki, Manal Alnaas, Bahia Samodien, Rawa A. Mahmoud, Nour Abu Assab, Sherin Saad, Sondos G. Alhachim and Maha El Tantawi
Additional contact information
Heba Jafar Sabbagh: Department of Pediatric Dentistry, Faculty of Dentistry, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah 21589, Saudi Arabia
Wafaa Abdelaziz: Department of Pediatric Dentistry and Dental Public Health, Faculty of Dentistry, Alexandria University, Alexandria 21561, Egypt
Waleed Alghamdi: Division of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah 21589, Saudi Arabia
Maryam Quritum: Department of Pediatric Dentistry and Dental Public Health, Faculty of Dentistry, Alexandria University, Alexandria 21561, Egypt
Nada AbuBakr AlKhateeb: Faculty of Medicine, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah 21589, Saudi Arabia
Joud Abourdan: Medical Faculty, Istanbul Medipol University, Istanbul 34230, Turkey
Nafeesa Qureshi: City Quay Dental Practice and Implant Centre, Dundee DD1 3JA, UK
Shabnum Qureshi: Department of Education, University of Kashmir, Srinagar 190006, India
Ahmed H. N. Hamoud: Faculty of Dentistry, Alexandria University, Alexandria 21561, Egypt
Nada Mahmoud: Faculty of Dentistry, National Ribat University, Khartoum 1111, Sudan
Ruba Odeh: College of Dentistry, Ajman University, Ajman P.O. Box 346, United Arab Emirates
Nuraldeen Maher Al-Khanati: Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Faculty of Dentistry, Syrian Private University, Damascus 368, Syria
Rawiah Jaber: General Courses, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah 21589, Saudi Arabia
Abdulrahman Loaie Balkhoyor: Faculty of Engineering, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah 21589, Saudi Arabia
Mohammed Shabi: University of Jeddah, Jeddah 23218, Saudi Arabia
Morenike Oluwatoyin Folayan: Department of Child Dental Health, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria
Omolola Alade: Department of Preventive and Community Dentistry, Faculty of Dentistry, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria
Noha Gomaa: Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry, University of Western Ontario, London, ON N6A 3K7, Canada
Raqiya Alnahdi: Department of Dental Surgery, Oman Dental College, Muscat 116, Oman
Nawal A. Mahmoud: Institute of Creative Art and Design (ICAD), Kuala Lumpur Campus, UCSI University, Kuala Lumpur 56000, Malaysia
Hanane El Wazziki: Department of Cereal Plant Pathology, National Institute of Agricultural Research, Rabat 10090, Morocco
Manal Alnaas: Division of Imaging Science and Technology, School of Medicine, University of Dundee, Dundee DD1 4HN, UK
Bahia Samodien: Western Cape Education Department, Cape Town 8001, South Africa
Rawa A. Mahmoud: Musculoskeletal Center, International Medical Center, Jeddah 21451, Saudi Arabia
Nour Abu Assab: Schools of Awqaf, Directorate of Education, Jerusalem, Palestine
Sherin Saad: Department of Pharmacology, Institute of Neuroscience and Physiology, University of Gothenburg, Box 431, 40530 Gothenburg, Sweden
Sondos G. Alhachim: Health Education Services, Ingham County, Lansing, MI 48933, USA
Maha El Tantawi: Department of Pediatric Dentistry and Dental Public Health, Faculty of Dentistry, Alexandria University, Alexandria 21561, Egypt

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 17, 1-14

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.

Keywords: adolescent and young adults; anxiety; country income level; socio-demographic; COVID-19 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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