Changes in General and Virus-Specific Anxiety During the Spread of COVID-19 in Israel: A 7-Wave Longitudinal Study.
Am J Epidemiol
; 191(1): 49-62, 2022 01 01.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-1621543
ABSTRACT
We compared 3 hypothetical trajectories of change in both general and coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)-specific anxiety during the first wave of the spread in the state of Israel panic (very high anxiety, either from the outset or rapidly increasing), complacency (stable and low anxiety), and threat-sensitive (a moderate, linear increase compatible with the increase in threat). A representative sample of 1,018 Jewish-Israeli adults was recruited online. A baseline assessment commenced 2 days prior to the identification of the first case, followed by 6 weekly assessments. Latent mixture modeling analyses revealed the presence of 3 trajectories 1) "threat-sensitivity" (29% and 66%, for general and virus-specific anxiety, respectively), 2) panic (12% and 25%), and 3) complacency (29% and 9%). For general anxiety only, a fourth class representing a stable mid-level anxiety was identified ("balanced" 30%). For general anxiety, women and the initially anxious-both generally and specifically from the spread of the virus-were more likely to belong to the panic class. Men and older participants were more likely to belong to the complacency class. Findings indicate a marked heterogeneity in anxiety responses to the first wave of the spread of COVID-19, including a large group evincing a "balanced" response.
Keywords
Full text:
Available
Collection:
International databases
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Anxiety
/
COVID-19
Type of study:
Cohort study
/
Observational study
/
Prognostic study
Limits:
Adult
/
Aged
/
Female
/
Humans
/
Male
/
Middle aged
Country/Region as subject:
Asia
Language:
English
Journal:
Am J Epidemiol
Year:
2022
Document Type:
Article
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