Prevalence of anxiety, depression and fear of COVID-19 in the general Salvadorean population

Abstract

The main objective of this article is to determine the prevalence of anxiety, depression and fear symptoms at the face of COVID-19 in the Salvadorean population. In like manner, to determine the seriousness in each psychological variable as well as to find out whether there is a connection with the socio-demographic characteristics of the sample. This is an exploratory study with a transversal design; in order to collect the data, an online survey was conducted via Google Forms. A non-probabilistic sample of 328 Salvadoreans was taken. The mean for the age is 27.90 years old, with a SD of 9.10; in regards to gender, the mean is of 29.05 for men, with a SD of 9.94, and for women, a mean of 27.42, with a SD of 8.70. The findings show a high prevalence of anxiety symptoms; these fluctuate between 60 % and 80 %. Those symptoms related to depression are between 50 % and 70%, and finally, in relation to fear to COVID-19, there was a prevalence between 20 % and 40 %. In terms of the degree in which it affected people, 90 % of the sample shows moderate to severe anxiety and depression levels. It was possible to establish connections among gender, age, and the amount of hours spent thinking about COVID-19. In regards to fear of COVID-19, the findings show that about 30 % of the sample has been affected by it in relation to gender and the number of hours spent thinking about COVID-19.