Anxiety in the Covid-19 Pandemic in Brazil

A Longitudinal Study

Abstract

Objective: To measure the prevalence of anxiety longitudinally at two time points during the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as the associated factors. Method: A longitudinal observational study was conducted with 485 participants residing in the 27 federal units of Brazil through a self-selectable online questionnaire. Sociodemographic characteristics, individual health characteristics, stress, and anxiety were evaluated. Descriptive analysis was performed using means, standard deviation, and prevalence with a 95% confidence interval. Results: During the first data collection period (T1), 20.6% of respondents had clinically relevant anxiety, while in the second data collection period, 22.7% of participants had clinically significant anxiety. Among the analyzed periods, 15.6% of participants who did not have anxiety in the first data collection developed clinically significant anxiety in the second period, and 50% of those who were anxious in the first moment did not have clinically significant anxiety in the final period. It was possible to identify significant associations between the incidence of anxiety and being up to 24 years old, lower education level, high levels of fear of COVID-19, low physical activity, high levels of stress, and lower family income. At the same time, significant associations were observed between the incidence of recovery and higher education level, not having lost family members to COVID-19, lower levels of stress, and higher family income. Conclusion: Despite the high prevalence of anxious symptomatology among Brazilians, sociodemographic and behavioral factors could be identified as risk and protective factors for the development of clinically significant anxious symptomatology.