Risk and protective factors for anxiety during COVID-19 pandemic

BACKGROUND: Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a global pandemic and an anxiety-provoking event. There are few studies to identify potential risk and protective factors related to anxiety during COVID-19 pandemic. METHODS: We collected information on demographic data and lifestyles by a web-based survey of 19,802 participants from 34 provinces in China during COVID-19 pandemic. Level of anxiety was evaluated using the Self-Rating Anxiety Scale. We used ordinal multivariable logistic regression to estimate the associations of anxiety level with potential risk and protective factors. We further developed a new score to simplify the assessment of anxiety during COVID-19 crisis. RESULTS: Among 19,802 participants, we found that those who were front-line medical personnel, suffered from chronic disease, with present symptoms of SARS-CoV-2 infection or contact history had 112, 93, 40 and 15% increased risk of higher anxiety level; while those with knowledge about personal protective measures or wore masks had 75 and 29% lower risk of higher anxiety level respectively. We developed a risk score by calculating the sum of single score of 17 factors. Each one increase of the risk score was associated with a 297% increase in anxiety index score. In categorical analysis, low risk (the risk score between 1 to 2), the moderate risk group (the risk score of 3) and high risk group (the risk score ≥ 4) had − 0.40 (95% CI: − 1.55, 0.76), 1.44 (95% CI: 0.27, 2.61) and 9.18 (95% CI: 8.04, 10.33) increase in anxiety index score, and 26% (95% CI: − 7, 72%), 172% (95% CI: 100, 270%), and 733% (95% CI: 516, 1026%) higher risk of anxiety respectively, when compared with the very low risk group (the risk score of 0). The AUC was 0.73 (95% CI, 0.72, 0.74) for the model fitted the developed risk score, with the cut-off point of 3.5. CONCLUSIONS: These findings revealed protective and risk factors associated with anxiety, and developed a simple method of identifying people who are at an increased risk of anxiety during COVID-19 pandemic. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12889-021-11118-8.