ABSTRACT
Introduction: During the COVID-19 pandemic, many changes occurred in various cultural, social, and economic fields, leading to the creation of psychological effects, especially anxiety, in the community. Fear and anxiety about emerging diseases (COVID-19) and less participation in preventive behaviors reduce individual resistance and ultimately lower one's quality of life. Therefore, we aimed to investigate the relationship between health literacy and generalized anxiety disorder during the COVID-19 pandemic in Khuzestan province, Iran. Methods: This was a descriptive-analytical (cross-sectional) study conducted among participants aged 18-65 in Khuzestan province during the years 2020-2021 through online sampling. Due to the prevalence of COVID-19 and the impossibility of face-to-face communication, the questionnaire was designed on the Porseline Survey website and the questionnaire link was provided to participants through WhatsApp and Telegram. The data collection tool includes the Iranian Health Literacy Questionnaire, which includes 33 items, and the Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 scale, which has 7 items based on a Likert scale. Data analysis was performed using STATA14 software and descriptive and analytical statistical tests at a significant level less than 0.05. Results: The mean (standard deviation) score for health literacy was 52.9 ± 9.3 and for generalized anxiety disorder was 5.2 ± 3.1. A significant negative correlation was found between the mean of anxiety disorder and health literacy (p < 0.05). The frequency of health literacy in individuals included 427 (37.8%) with inadequate health literacy, 628 (55.6%) with marginal health literacy, and 75 (6.6%) with sufficient health literacy. There was a statistically significant difference between the mean of generalized anxiety disorder among individuals with different levels of health literacy (p < 0.05). Conclusion: As the level of health literacy increases, the prevalence of generalized anxiety disorder caused by fear of COVID-19 decreases. Therefore, increasing awareness and health literacy about this virus, its transmission, and prevention methods is very effective in managing anxiety and stress caused by COVID-19. Paying attention to the issue of health literacy and generalized anxiety disorder, and promoting preventive behaviors can be effective tools for planners, health officials, and policymakers to promote health literacy for any type of disease.
ABSTRACT
Objective: We aimed to determine the mental health and death anxiety among dental staff and students in school of dentistry during COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: It was a cross-sectional study among students (n = 300) and staff (n = 60) in School of dentistry in Ahvaz University of Medical Sciences during 2020. The instruments were a demographic questionnaire, Death Anxiety Scale, and Kessler Questionnaire. Data was analyze by using SPSS version 22, in all tests, the significance level was set at <0.05. Results: The mean age of dental students and personnel was 23.96 and 40.08 years, respectively. The mean scores of death anxiety were higher in dental staff (8.53) than students (6.02) and the mean scores of mental health status were higher in students (14.78) than personnel (9.18). This indicates that death anxiety was higher in Dental staff, while students were in better mental health status. The correlation coefficient between death anxiety and mental health status was 0.366 among students (p < 0.001), while it was 0.429 among dental staff (p < 0.001), showing a medium relationship between death anxiety and mental health in both groups. Conclusion: The overall findings represent a significant but contradictory relationship between mental health status and death anxiety among dental staff and students during the prevalence of COVID-19 pandemic. This suggests the impact of confounding factors in this area, which can be studied by future researchers and policy makers to design health promotion interventions.
