A cross-sectional study on generalized anxiety disorder and its socio-demographic correlates among the general population in Saudi Arabia

Background: Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) is often described than define as a psychological illness that is characterized by excessive worry. Little attention has been given to anxiety disorders by the medical community in Saudi Arabia. This study was carried out to screen for GAD among adults and determine the correlation of anxiety disorder with other comorbidities. Methodology: This study was a cross-sectional observational study carried out among adults aged 18 years and above in the general population in Saudi Arabia. The people were screened by using an Arabic validated version of General Anxiety Disorder-7 (GAD-7) questionnaire that was sent as a Google link via emails or different social media (Twitter, Facebook, WhatsApp, and Telegram groups) of the general population. The study was approved by the hospital research committee and the Institutional Review Board (HIRI-05-Apr21-01). Results: We collected 338 participants in response to our questionnaire where 60.7% of them were females and 54.5% were aged between 25 and 34 years old. hypersensitivity, rheumatoid arthritis (RA), hypertension and diabetes mellitus (DM) were the main medical conditions represented by 7.6%, 4.8%, 3.7%, and 3.4%. According to GAD-7 questionnaire, prevalence of any degree of anxiety was 62.1% where 33.1% of the total sample had mild anxiety. 15.7% had a moderate degree of anxiety and 13.3% had severe anxiety. Anxiety was related to age, residency, occupation, and some medical conditions. Conclusion: We found high prevalence of anxiety among our population which was the highest among younger participants, and students. Moreover, we found that prevalence and severity of anxiety were higher in patients with chronic conditions and depressed patients.