An Investigation of Associations and Incidence of Anxiety, Depression, Perceived Vulnerability to Diseases, and Fear of COVID-19 Among Nigerian Health Care Workers

Abstract

Background: Health care workers (HCWs) are the frontline of coping COVID-19 pandemic, which indicates the importance of improving their mental wellness to better cope with the situation. Objectives: The current study aimed to firstly assess the severity of anxiety and depression and perceived vulnerability to diseases, and secondly to investigate their association with the fear of COVID-19 among Nigerian HCWs. Methods: For this cross-sectional study, a purposefully selected sample of 413 HCWs from two tertiary healthcare institutions in Benin City, Edo State, South-South Nigeria, responded to the Fear of COVID-19 Scale, Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, and Perceived Vulnerability to Disease Scale. Data was collected between October 2020 and February 2021. Descriptive statistics were used to summarize socio-demographic variables, while inferential statistics (t-test for independent samples, one-way ANOVA, and linear regression) were used to test hypotheses. Results: A high prevalence of anxiety, depression, and perceived vulnerability to diseases (PVD) was observed. Perceived infectability (β = 0.244, P = 0.000), germ aversion (β = 0.166, P = 0.000), and composite PVD (β = 0.96, P = 0.000) were identified as independent and significant predictors of fear of COVID-19, accounting for 7.5; 3.3, and 9.9% variance in the severities of Fear of COVID-19, respectively. Anxiety and depression showed a significant joint prediction of Fear of COVID-19 severity, accounting for a 4.0% variance in the severity. Fear of COVID-19 was not found to be influenced by sex or job type differences among the HCWs. Conclusions: This study demonstrated a high incidence of anxiety, depression, and perceived vulnerability to COVID-19 among Nigerian HCWs. These reported symptoms of psychopathology are also strong independent and joint predictors of fear of COVID-19.

Fear of COVID-19 among oral health professionals in South Africa

“…Our findings indicate that males had comparatively less fear of COVID-19 than females ( Table 3 ). This result is similar to the study conducted among healthcare professional (Osagiator Ariyo et al 2021 ). Female university students were less afraid of COVID-19 (Morales-Rodríguez 2021 ), while among hospital staff showed no gender differences in corona phobia (Ashoor et al 2021 ).…”

Gender and COVID-19 related fear and anxiety: A meta-analysis

“… Collectivism Montag et al, 2021 932 N.A. China Asia University students 21.1 Collectivism Osagiator Ariyo et al, 2021 413 N.A. Nigeria Africa Hospital staff 38.7 Collectivism Öztürk Altınayak and Yılar Erkek, 2021 1749 11 Turkey Europe General population 32.9 Collectivism Parlak and Akgün Şahin, 2021 70 N.A.…”

“…On the other hand, some studies showed that males have higher COVID-19 anxiety levels ( Ashoor et al, 2021 ; Curtis et al, 2021 ; Saravanan et al, 2020 ; Srivastava et al, 2020 ). Also, many studies revealed males have higher fear of COVID-19 levels than females ( Abdelgwad and Abdelaziz, 2021 ; Alnazly et al, 2021 ; Ghaderi et al, 2021 ; Osagiator Ariyo et al, 2021 ). In addition, Parlak and Akgün Şahin (2021) and Wakashima et al (2020) found no gender difference in COVID-19 related fear and anxiety.…”

Impacts for health and care workers of Covid-19 and other public health emergencies of international concern: living systematic review, meta-analysis and policy recommendations

“…HCW were inevitably involved in the turmoil of the pandemic and began to face a double burden of the pandemic [3][4][5][6]. As members of a society affected by a public health emergency, HCW faced the challenges of lockdowns, social distancing and other measures aimed at controlling the pandemic as well as its social and economic impacts, while experiencing fear of becoming infected and of infecting others [7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14], stigma, violence in the workplace and outside health facilities as they were the ones breaching the lockdown [15][16][17]. Many HCWs were overworked and under strenuous conditions with women more affected then men [18] and were asked to work more hours, to extend their scope of practice, to start working immediately after graduation without due guidance, subject to stigma, harassment, temporary contracts, and with no extra incentives [2].…”