Self-evaluated anxiety in the Norwegian population: prevalence and associated factors

BACKGROUND: Self-evaluations of mental health problems may be a useful complement to diagnostic assessment, but are less frequently used. This study investigated the prevalence of self-evaluated current and lifetime anxiety in the general Norwegian population, and sociodemographic and psychological factors associated with current anxiety. METHODS: A cross-sectional population survey was conducted, using anxiety stated by self-evaluation as outcome. Single and multivariate logistic regression analyses were conducted to examine associations between sociodemographic and psychological variables and anxiety. RESULTS: One thousand six hundred eighty-four valid responses (34% of the eligible participants) were analysed in this study. One hundred and eleven participants (6.6%) reported current anxiety, while 365 (21.7%) reported lifetime anxiety. Adjusting for sociodemographic and psychological variables, higher age reduced the odds of current anxiety (OR = 0.87, 95% CI = 0.75–0.99), whereas higher levels of neuroticism increased the odds (OR = 2.04, 95% CI = 1.77–2.36). CONCLUSIONS: The study concludes that higher age appears to protect against anxiety, whereas neuroticism appears to increase the odds of experiencing anxiety.