A Study of the Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Anxiety Levels of Young Adults in India

BACKGROUND Since the end of December 2019, when a cluster of pneumonia cases due to a novel coronavirus was reported from China, coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has rapidly gained pandemic proportions, leaving death and extensive lifestyle changes in its wake. This, along with economic standstill and social isolation has led to anxiety, especially among the susceptible young adult population. We conducted a survey to assess the prevalence of anxiety among the young adult population in India. METHODS A questionnaire consisting of 74 questions was floated via Survey Monkey among the Indian community using the chain-referral sampling method, targeting young adults between the ages of 18 and 34 years. The level of anxiety was assessed using the Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD-7) scale. Responses were tabulated and analysed using IBM SPSS Data Editor. RESULTS A total of 618 respondents completed the survey. There were 352 (57%) males, and 442 (72%) were living in an urban setting. Nearly 66% (405) hailed from Uttar Pradesh and Delhi. There were 190 students (31%), and 123 healthcare workers (20%) among others. 281 (46%) of these 618 young adults had some level of anxiety as per the GAD-7 scale, but only 120 (19.4%) had clinically significant anxiety (GAD-7 scores >= 5). 247 respondents (41%) said that television and newspaper reports added to their anxiety. Further, females were significantly more anxious than males (25.6% vs 14.8%; p 0.001). The prevalence of anxiety was also significantly different in urban and rural setting (21.7% vs 13.4%; p 0.02), in patients with presence of comorbidities versus healthy people (33.8% versus 17.5%; p 0.004) and in income loss versus stable income source (24.4% vs 14.8%; p 0.04). All these factors remained as independent predictors of anxiety after regression analysis. Interestingly, 78% of the young adults were eventually able to adjust to the lifestyle changes. CONCLUSIONS This survey confirms that young adults have impressionable minds and are prone to anxiety, which was prevalent in 46%. Female sex, urban setting, comorbidities, income loss and media reports were independent predictors of anxiety among the young adult Indian population.