Anxiety Disorder in Homemakers of Kumaon Region of Uttarakhand, India

BACKGROUND: Anxiety is graded as the sixth major contributor to nonfatal health loss worldwide and is included in the top ten causes of years lived with disability. National Mental Health Survey 2015–2016 too reported the prevalence of anxiety spectrum disorders as 3.5%, and way higher among females than males. The present study was undertaken to find the prevalence of anxiety disorders in homemakers aged 15–59 years and identify factors causing anxiety disorders in this population. METHODS: In the present cross-sectional study, a total of 324 ever-married, apparently healthy women aged less than 60 years were included using systematic random sampling from the four selected urban areas after applying proportional sampling. A generalized anxiety disorder-7 (Hindi version) questionnaire was used for screening the anxiety disorders. Additional information was collected using a pretested questionnaire for assessing determinants. The data so collected were coded and compiled in MS Excel and analyzed using IBM(®)SPSS(®) Statistics (version 17.0). RESULTS: Forty-four (13.6%) out of 324 women were screened positive for anxiety disorder. Moderate anxiety was present in 10.2% and severe anxiety in 3.4% of study subjects. Anxiety symptoms were significantly higher among women with perceived economic instability 4.3 (95% CI 1.5–12.2) and non-cordial relation with family members (11.5 [95% CI 2.4–55.5] with in-laws and 20.2 [95% CI 4.3–94.2] with husband) Health of the children was also seen to be major reason of anxiety (31.1 [95% CI 3.8–256.6]). CONCLUSION: Anxiety disorder is a significant mental health problem affecting over 13% homemaker women in the Kumaon region of Uttarakhand, India.