A study on the anxiety level and stress during Covid19 lockdown among the general population of West Bengal, India- A must know for primary care physicians

Subhrojyoti Bhowmick; Saksham Parolia; Shubham Jana; Debarati Kundu; Digbijoy Choudhury; Nina Das; Krishnanghsu Ray; Sujit KarPurkaysatha

doi:10.4103/jfmpc.jfmpc_1385_20

A study on the anxiety level and stress during Covid19 lockdown among the general population of West Bengal, India- A must know for primary care physicians

J Family Med Prim Care. 2021 Feb;10(2):978-984. doi: 10.4103/jfmpc.jfmpc_1385_20. Epub 2021 Feb 27.

Authors

Subhrojyoti Bhowmick¹, Saksham Parolia², Shubham Jana³, Debarati Kundu⁴, Digbijoy Choudhury⁵, Nina Das⁶, Krishnanghsu Ray⁷, Sujit KarPurkaysatha⁸

Affiliations

¹ Associate Professor, Department of Pharmacology, KPC Medical College and Hospital, Kolkata, West Bengal, India.
² Student, PharmD, Department of Pharmacy Practice, Manipal College of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Manipal Academy of Higher Education, Manipal, Karnataka, India.
³ Ex-executive, Clinical Research Department, Peerless Hospitex Hospital and Research Center Ltd, Kolkata, West Bengal, India.
⁴ Executive, Clinical Research Department, Peerless Hospitex Hospital and Research Center Ltd, Kolkata, West Bengal, India.
⁵ Associate Consultant, Family Medicine, Ruby General Hospital, Kolkata, West Bengal, India, & Spice Route India, State Lead (WB), India.
⁶ Head, Department of Pharmacology, KPC Medical College and Hospital, Kolkata, West Bengal, India.
⁷ Medical Director, Peerless Hospitex Hospital and Research Centre Ltd, Kolkata, West Bengal, India.
⁸ Senior Consultant, Department of Gastroenterology, Peerless Hospitex Hospital and Research Centre Ltd, Kolkata, West Bengal, India.

Abstract

Background: Covid19 pandemic has resulted in drastic changes in human lives across the globe in the form of lockdown and an uncertain future. Information regarding the COVID-19-related anxiety and well-being among the public in India is very limited, especially from the state of West Bengal. We conducted this e-survey among the general population of West Bengal to assess the anxiety levels and the well-being status during lockdown. This information would be helpful to guide family physicians to screen patients for anxiety from the primary care level.

Aims: The main aim of this questionnaire based study was to assess the levels of anxiety and well-being status among the public including the frontline workers in West Bengal, India.

Materials and methods: A prospective study was conducted with a validated e-questionnaire after Institutional Ethics committee approval, from 18^th April, 2020 to 3^rd May, 2020. The questionnaire had 12 questions which included the Generalized Anxiety disorder (GAD)-7 scale and the WHO-5 scale (5 question-items) to assess the well-being of the participants. The survey link was distributed through the social networking sites of WhatsApp, LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter and e-mails within West Bengal. Microsoft Excel (version 2016) was used to analyse the data.

Results: A total of 355 responses were received 15.49% responders were observed to have anxiety and 37.74% participants had low well-being scores. Majority of healthcare workers (89.47%) were seen to have anxiety and a significant (52.03%) had a low well-being status.

Conclusions: We report the presence of anxiety and low well-being among the general population of West Bengal. It is important to understand the current psychological status of the public for the family physicians as many would visit them with vague symptoms. There is a dire need to screen all patients including front line workers visiting primary care physicians for mental health to ensure better clinical outcome.

Keywords: Anxiety; COVID-19; India; Well-being; West Bengal; health care workers.