Assessment General Anxiety Disorder among University Students during the COVID-19 Pandemic in Sudan

Author(s): Makia Hussein Makawi Mohamed, Nora Faysal Hassan Ibnaoof, Wafaa Eshag Moheyeldeen Abbas, Mohammed Ali Alzain, Kamal Abdallah Ali Mohammed

Introduction: COVID-19 disease and its preventive measures are likely to increase anxiety levels among individuals. Methodology: A cross-sectional study conducted among Sudanese university students in August 2020. Generalized anxiety disorder scale (GAD-7) was used to assess the anxiety level through an online questionnaire. We used a simple random sampling technique, sample size was 664, and the collected responses an 847 with 98.7 response rate. The data analyzed by Statistical Package for the Social Science (SPSS) version 20.

Result: Among the participants, 558 (65.8%) were female, Female: Male ratio 1 :1.9 ,569 (67.2%) were living in urban areas and 682 (80.4) were worrying about the academic delay. Minimal, mild, moderate and severe anxiety were reported by 307 (35.8%), 350 (40.8%), 118 (13.8%) and 72 (8.4%) of the respondents, respectively. There was powerful statistically significant association between the variables and anxiety levels (p=.000).

Conclusion: The study was one of the earliest studies to explore the anxiety levels and association factors on students in the initial stage of COVID_19 in Sudan. Furthermore, the findings can be used at the government and university levels to build strategies that will reduce anxiety among university students in a similar pandemic in the future.