• Esra H Alzaid, Safa S Alsaad, Nariman Alshakhis, Doaa Albagshi, Rania Albesher, and Mahdi Aloqaili.
• King Fahad Specialist Hospital- Dammam, E1-First Health Cluster, Dammam, Saudi Arabia.
• J Family Med Prim Care. 2020 Sep 1; 9 (9): 4904-4910.

IntroductionCOVID-19 was labeled as a pandemic in March 2020. Healthcare workers (HCW) are confronting great mental stressors in coping with the crisis. In Saudi Arabia, research on the psychological effect of COVID-19 on HCW is lacking.AimTo evaluate COVID-19 psychological impact on HCW and determine anxiety predictors to identify high-risk individuals.Materials And MethodsA descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted on HCW in First Health Cluster Institutes in Eastern Province. An English self-administered questionnaire was adopted from similar research done in China. The original questionnaires were modified to meet the objectives of our study and suit Saudi sociodemographic differences. Generalized anxiety disorder-7 scale was incorporated to be the main tool for assessing the psychological impact.ResultsOne-third of HCW were classified as having anxiety disorder. In univariate analyses, the age group in years (P = 0.026), gender (P = 0.001), nationality (P = 0.033), and living with family (P = 0.007) significantly influenced anxiety disorder. However, in the multivariate regression model, gender (P = 0.004), living with family (P = 0.021), family history of COVID-19 (P = 0.022), and been suspected or confirmed with COVID-19 infection (P = 0.018) remained statistically significant when compared to anxiety disorder.ConclusionDuring early COVID-19 pandemic, anxiety disorder among HCW was noticeable. Being a female, living with family members, and having a family history of COVID-19 increased the risk for anxiety disorder.Copyright: © 2020 Journal of Family Medicine and Primary Care.

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