Self-evaluated anxiety in the Norwegian population: prevalence and associated factors

Tore Bonsaksen; Trond Heir; Øivind Ekeberg; Tine K Grimholt; Anners Lerdal; Laila Skogstad; Inger Schou-Bredal

doi:10.1186/s13690-019-0338-0

Self-evaluated anxiety in the Norwegian population: prevalence and associated factors

Arch Public Health. 2019 Mar 18:77:10. doi: 10.1186/s13690-019-0338-0. eCollection 2019.

Authors

Tore Bonsaksen^{1

2}, Trond Heir^{3

4}, Øivind Ekeberg^{5

6}, Tine K Grimholt^{7

8}, Anners Lerdal^{9

10}, Laila Skogstad⁷, Inger Schou-Bredal^{10

11}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Occupational Therapy, Prosthetics and Orthotics, Faculty of Health Sciences, OsloMet, Oslo Metropolitan University, PO Box 4, St. Olavs Plass, 0130 Oslo, Norway.
² 2Faculty of Health Studies, VID Specialized University, Sandnes, Norway.
³ 3Norwegian Center for Violence and Traumatic Stress Studies, Oslo, Norway.
⁴ 4Institute of Clinical Medicine, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway.
⁵ 5Division of Mental Health and Addiction, Oslo University Hospital, Oslo, Norway.
⁶ 6Department of Behavioural Sciences in Medicine, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway.
⁷ Department of Nursing and Health Promotion, Faculty of Health Sciences, OsloMet, Oslo Metropolitan University, Oslo, Norway.
⁸ Department of General Practice, Institute of Health and Society, Faculty of Medicine, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway.
⁹ 9Department for Patient Safety and Research, Lovisenberg Diakonale Hospital, Oslo, Norway.
¹⁰ Department of Nursing Science, Institute of Health and Society, Faculty of Medicine, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway.
¹¹ 11Department for Cancer, Oslo University Hospital, Oslo, Norway.

Abstract

Background: Self-evaluations of mental health problems may be a useful complement to diagnostic assessment, but are less frequently used. This study investigated the prevalence of self-evaluated current and lifetime anxiety in the general Norwegian population, and sociodemographic and psychological factors associated with current anxiety.

Methods: A cross-sectional population survey was conducted, using anxiety stated by self-evaluation as outcome. Single and multivariate logistic regression analyses were conducted to examine associations between sociodemographic and psychological variables and anxiety.

Results: One thousand six hundred eighty-four valid responses (34% of the eligible participants) were analysed in this study. One hundred and eleven participants (6.6%) reported current anxiety, while 365 (21.7%) reported lifetime anxiety. Adjusting for sociodemographic and psychological variables, higher age reduced the odds of current anxiety (OR = 0.87, 95% CI = 0.75-0.99), whereas higher levels of neuroticism increased the odds (OR = 2.04, 95% CI = 1.77-2.36).

Conclusions: The study concludes that higher age appears to protect against anxiety, whereas neuroticism appears to increase the odds of experiencing anxiety.

Keywords: Extraversion; General self-efficacy; Neuroticism; Optimism; Personality; Population survey.