A Psychometric Analysis of Somatic and Cognitive Factors of Anxiety in Healthcare Workers during COVID-19 Pandemic Based on State-Trait Inventory for Cognitive and Somatic Anxiety Scale: An Observational Study

ABSTRACT

Background: The Pandemic of COVID-19 has put healthcare workers under significant psychological pressure. This aimed to analyze the cognitive and somatic components of anxiety among healthcare workers using the State-Trait Inventory for Cognitive and Somatic Assessment Scale (STICSA) before and during the pandemic. In this observational study, 300 healthcare workers were analyzed using the STICSA questionnaire. Various demographic data like age, gender, marital status, educational background, sleep duration was collected. The somatic and cognitive dysfunction score were compared using an independent sample T-test between gender, duration of sleep, etc. Somatic and cognitive dysfunction severity was compared with demographic and pandemic-related parameters using the Chi square test. Result(s) Among 300 participants, the majority (83%, n=249) were below 29 years of age, 159(53%) were females. In respect to duration of sleep during the pandemic, the total score was 40.85 +/- 13.3 in participants sleeping less than 7 hours and 35.83 +/- 11.7 among participants sleeping more than7 hrs. This difference in total score and duration of sleep between the groups was statistically significant (P value 0.001). The mean total score of somatic and cognitive dysfunction before the pandemic was 34.88 +/- 11.527, and it was 38.03 +/- 12.655 during the pandemic. The difference in scores before the pandemic and during the pandemic was statistically significant (P value <0.001). Conclusion(s) This study gives enough evidence that anxiety levels have increased and duration of sleep has decreased among health care workers during this pandemic, with cognitive dysfunction being more profound than somatic dysfunction.. Copyright © 2022 Wolters Kluwer Medknow Publications. All rights reserved.