Anxiety in Lebanon during the COVID-19 pandemic

الملخص EN

Objective: To evaluate the anxiety level among a heterogeneous Lebanese population during the COVID-19 pandemic and find any correlation between the two.

Method: We collected, using an online questionnaire, the sociodemographic characteristics of 2858 randomly selected Lebanese individuals (>18 years), and evaluated their level of anxiety using the State Trait Anxiety Inventory.

Results: We found a significant correlation between an increased level of anxiety and the following characteristics: female sex, younger age, low levels of education, lower monthly income, unemployment, being single, living with family/friends, living in Beirut, smoking, medical history of respiratory diseases, personal and family history of mental illness, taking psychiatric medications, history of anxiety suggested by a physician, and experiencing any kind of confinement/isolation.

On the other hand, no significant association was found between a higher anxiety score and personal infection by the virus, the infection of relatives or friends, or the duration of the confinement.

Conclusion: Infectious outbreaks have a heavy impact on people’s mental health, and this impact is underestimated and neglected as the main focus is on controlling and limiting the disease transmission.

It is important to raise awareness on the matter to be able to prevent anxiety outbreaks following the COVID-19 pandemic.