Prevalence of Perceived Anxiety in General People, Students and Healthcare Professionals during COVID-19 Pandemic: A Comprehensive Scientific Review

Abstract

The global severity of COVID-19 remains high which results anxiety and other mental health problems, also it altered people's everyday lives, affected human connections and economic operations. The goal of this comprehensive review was to identify the effects of the linkage COVID-19 pandemic on the mental health of different groups and communities. This study compiled evidences of a link between anxiety rates and the COVID-19 pandemic. The evaluation period started in June’ 2022 and ended on August’2022, during this time, total four databases such as PubMed, Science Direct, Tailor & Francis Online, and Springer were used to search scientific literatures. A total 616 studies were identified from all four databases and 63 scientific literatures were selected based of predetermined criteria for review which were published in between 2020 to 2022. Three groups of population such as general population, students and healthcare professionals were taken for review the findings from the selected literatures. Gender, physical disorders, psychiatric disorders, COVID infection, infection rates in colleagues or family members, experience of frontline work & non-frontline work, close contact with infected patients, high exposure risk, quarantine experience, etc. were highly considered as factors associated with increased prevalence of anxiety among all three groups. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the general population, healthcare professionals, and students experienced an increase in the prevalence of mental diseases, whereas infected individuals had a decrease. Females were highly prevalent to anxiety than male. Our comprehensive review concluded significant co-relation between anxiety and COVID-19 but long-term study is needed to better understand which may define the population's mental condition in future.