Psychological impact of COVID-19 lockdown on general population of Hail, Saudi Arabia

ABSTRACT

Background: Pandemics are associated with anxiety, depression, and/or even death. The present study was planned to measure the psychological stress due to current pandemic-COVID19 amongst resident of Hail, Saudi Arabia. Method: It was a survey based cross sectional study. Non-Probability convenient sampling was used to collect the information from 240 respondents. Generalized Anxiety Disorder scale (GAD-7) was used as study tool. Data was displayed as number and percentages. Chi square test was used to measure inferential statistics. Results: More than 55% of study respondent reportedly found to have some level of anxiety during lockdown. However, nearly 35% had mild anxiety. Interestingly, statistically significant association was observed amongst, gender, level of education, Income, nationality, profession, place of resident, and age. Conclusion: The findings of present study may not be generalizable to Hail city. However, more than 50% of study respondent reported some sort of anxiety. Mild anxiety was most commonly reported. Level of anxiety was found to be statistically associated with various socio demographic variables. It is recommended to have further studies to measure the relationship of psychological stress on individuals of various backgrounds.