The anxiety of not knowing: Diagnosis uncertainty about COVID-19

Abstract

The emergence and swift global spread of COVID-19 brought increased anxiety worldwide (Santabárbara et al. ( Progress in Neuro-Psychopharmacology & Biological Psychiatry, 109, 110207, 2021 )). Research regarding the COVID-19 outbreak addressed factors that contribute to anxiety people experienced as they tried to handle the changes in their lives associated with COVID-19 (Holmes et al. ( The Lancet Psychiatry, 7 (6), 547–560, 2020 )). This paper focuses on diagnosis uncertainty as a particular source of anxiety. We use self-reported anxiety measures to understand how different stressors, and particularly how being sick or being unsure if one or one’s close friends or relatives are sick, relate to overall anxiety levels. Five-hundred and thirty-three participants from a country with a stringent COVID-19 testing policy were surveyed in the spring of 2020 on various aspects of their anxiety and risk for depression, as well as on whether they or their friends or family had COVID-19. Analysis of survey results found that anxiety related to uncertainty regarding whether the survey responder or their friends or family were carrying COVID-19 may be even greater than fear of the virus itself. This paper discusses directional issues related to this finding and offers policy implications for decreasing anxiety during pandemics for certain types of communities. In addition to the main findings regarding diagnosis uncertainty and anxiety, this paper’s results also indicate the importance of providing participants with an option for “not sure” in closed questions and imply the increased knowledge that can be gained by analyzing an unsure response independently of “yes” or “no”.

The prevalence of functional gastrointestinal disorders related symptoms and the association with working place among healthcare workers who were in the fighting against COVID-19 in regional China

“…On the other hand, the in-ward HWs were at certain risks of COVID-19, as they just directly contacted these confirmed COVID-19 patients within well-equipped isolated hospital wards/ICUs. From the psychological perspective, uncertainty makes it difficult for people to prepare properly for unpredictable future negative events, and consequently it might produce more anxiety, stress and fear for people relative to certainty ( 17 , 18 ). This might partly explain that out-ward HWs at uncertain risks of COVID-19 tended to experience FGIDs-related symptoms compared to their in-ward counterparts who were at certain COVID-19 risks.…”

“…Meanwhile, uncertainty might produce more stress, anxiety and fear for people compared to certainty ( 17 ). It has been observed among Israelis that those participants who could not ensure whether being infected with SARS-CoV-2 tended to report negative psychological emotions relative to those who were certain that they had been infected with the virus ( 18 ). Thus, it is reasonable to assume that the occurrence rate of FGIDs-related symptoms might be different between the in-ward and out-ward healthcare workers, as they, respectively, faced certain and uncertain risks of COVID-19 and thus suffered from different levels of psychological stress.…”

Psychological science and its societal mission during the SARS‐CoV‐2 pandemic: The Motivation Barometer as an evidence‐informed policy instrument in Belgium

“…In the context of the pandemic, people's concerns with respect to their own and others' health and about the uncertain evolution of the situation itself were most relevant (e.g., Charilaou & Vijaykumar, 2023). Different factors influenced health concerns, including the threat of insufficient hospital capacity to accommodate new patients (Fiorillo & Gorwood, 2020), the daily media reports of infections, hospitalizations, and mortality numbers (Bou-Hamad et al, 2021), and an infection of oneself or close others (Levine et al, 2022). A series of studies focused on the effect of concerns and the factors buffering and amplifying its effect.…”

The Relationship Between Mindfulness, Fatigue, and Perceived Symptoms Among Frontline Nurses Who Performed Nucleic Acid Sample Collection During the COVID-19 in China: A Cross-Sectional Study

“… 7 This might partly be because out-ward healthcare workers at uncertain risk of COVID-19 tended to experience related mental problems and symptoms compared to their inward counterparts whose risk of contracting COVID-19 was more definite. 8 The COVID-19 pandemic has further exacerbated the prevalence of fatigue in nurses. Profession-related fatigue harms the work efficiency, safety, and health of nurses and even produces symptoms such as anxiety, depression, headache, dizziness, compulsion, and insomnia.…”