• Abdelrahim Alqudah, Ahmad Al-Smadi, Muna Oqal, Esam Y Qnais, Mohammed Wedyan, Majd Abu Gneam, Roaa Alnajjar, Manar Alajarmeh, Elaf Yousef, and Omar Gammoh.
• Department of clinical pharmacy and pharmacy practice, Faculty of pharmaceutical sciences, The Hashemite University, Zarqa, Jordan.
• Int. J. Clin. Pract. 2021 Jul 1; 75 (7): e14249.

ObjectiveThis study was conducted to study the anxiety scores among undergraduate university students in Jordan during COVID-19 pandemic and to assess the relationship between quarantine and shifting to distance learning resulted from the governmental strict isolation measures and severity of anxiety among students.MethodsA cross-sectional design was conducted to meet the study objectives. A convenience sample of 736 undergraduate university students in Jordan was recruited, and anxiety was assessed using the Hamilton Anxiety Scale.ResultsThe results indicated that anxiety score was 22.76 and 40.6% of the participant experienced moderate to severe anxiety, whereas 23.5% experienced mild to moderate anxiety and 35.9% experienced mild anxiety. Factors like suffering from chronic illnesses, having chronic medications, grade point average, shifting to distance learning, quarantine during the pandemic, study duties, the newly developed evaluation methods and the experience of students towards the use of anti-anxiety drugs and herbs had significantly increased the anxiety scores.ConclusionOur findings indicate that quarantine and shifting to distance learning during COVID-19 pandemic have negatively affected the anxiety scores of the university students which should be taken in consideration by the policymakers in Jordan in order to support this vulnerable group.© 2021 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

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