The association of severe COVID anxiety with poor social functioning, quality of life, and protective behaviours among adults in United Kingdom: a cross-sectional study

Abstract

Background Anxiety about COVID-19 is common. For most people this is an appropriate response to the loss of livelihoods and loved-ones, disruptions to social networks, and uncertainty about the future. However, for others these anxieties relate to contracting the virus itself, a phenomenon termed COVID anxiety. Little is known about the characteristics of people with severe COVID anxiety or the impact it has on their daily lives. Methods We conducted a two-phase cross-sectional survey of people aged 18 or over who were living in United Kingdom, self-identified as anxious about COVID-19, and had a score of ≥9 on the Coronavirus Anxiety Scale. We recruited participants nationally through online adverts and locally via primary care services in London. Data on demographic and clinical factors were used in multiple regression modelling to examine the greatest contributors to functional impairment, poor health-related quality of life and protective behaviours in this sample of individuals with severe COVID anxiety. Results We recruited 306 people with severe COVID anxiety between January and September 2021. Most were female (n = 246, 81.2%); they had a median age of 41 (range = 18–83). The majority of participants also had generalised anxiety (n = 270, 91.5%), depression (n = 247, 85.5%), and a quarter (n = 79, 26.3%) reported a physical health condition which put them at increased risk of hospitalisation with COVID-19. Half had severe social dysfunction (n = 151, 52.4%). One in ten reported never leaving their home, one in three washed all items brought into their house, one in five washed their hands constantly, and one in five of those with children reported not sending them to school because of fears of COVID-19. Increasing co-morbid depressive symptoms best explained functional impairment and poor quality of life after controlling for other factors. Conclusions This study highlights the high degree of co-occuring mental health problems, and the extent of functional impairment and poor health-related quality of life among people with severe COVID anxiety. Further research is needed to establish the course of severe COVID anxiety as the pandemic progresses, and steps that can be taken to support people who experience this distress.

The prevalence and distribution characteristics of anxiety disorders, social support, and quality of life in the population many years after the lushan earthquake in Ya’an, China

“…In this study, we found that the social support and quality of life scores of those with anxiety disorders were signi cantly lower than those without anxiety disorders (P<0.001), and both groups had low social support and quality of life, similar to previous study on those who infected COVID-19 (King et al, 2023). The related reason for this is that the sudden catastrophic events of the earthquake and the COVID-19 themselves, as well as the subsequent prolonged effects, can traumatize individuals to varying degrees and lead to a decline in quality of life (Newnham et al, 2020;Vindegaard et al, 2020).…”

“…Social support not only plays a positive role in the ful llment of an individual's emotional needs and the maintenance of physiological health, but also buffers the impact of stressful events on quality of life, and is an important protective factor for the quality of an individual's survival (Lee et al, 2021). Investigations have found that patients with anxiety disorders have varying degrees of decreased quality of life (King et al, 2023). Meanwhile, negative emotions, such as anxiety, cause individuals to have less interest in socializing and fewer sources of social support, which further leads to a decrease in quality of life (Landi et al, 2020).…”