Background: Occurrence of symptoms of fear and depression among general population during the outbreak of COVID-19 seems to present an emerging problem worldwide. The aim of this study was to examine levels of fear and depressive symptoms in association with COVID-19 outbreak and to assess other contributing factors in the population of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Subjects and methods: Link to an anonymous questionnaire, mainly based on The Fear of COVID-19 Scale (Ahorsu et al. 2020) and two-item and nine-item Patient Health Questionnaires (PHQs) (Maurer et al. 2018) (background information, fear assessment and information regarding depression) was distributed online to general population of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Results: Out of 1201 respondents, 217 (18.0%) reported experiencing fear and 341 (28.4%) reported having symptoms of depression during COVID-19 outbreak. The mean age of the subjects was 30.57±11.26. Being older (OR=1.044; 95% CI 1.031-1.057; p<0.001) and having moderate to severe depressive symptoms (OR=1.093; 95% CI 1.067-1.120; p<0.001) were independent significant predictors for developing fear; living in rural environment (OR=0.551; 95% Cl 0.325-0.935; p=0.0027) significantly decreased the risk of developing fear; being female (OR=1.750; 95% CI 1.242-2.466; p=0.001), unemployed (OR=1.557; 95% CI 1.040-2.330; p=0.032) or student (OR=1.943; 95% CI 1.450-2.604; p<0.001) were independent significant predictors for developing moderate to severe depressive symptoms in association with COVID-19. Mann Whitney U-test showed that being older was statistically associated with fear (p<0.001) and being younger was statistically associated with depressive symptoms (p<0.001).
Conclusions: In conclusion, based on our findings, fear and depressive symptoms in general population of Bosnia and Herzegovina during the outbreak of COVID-19 were present in 18.06% (fear) and 28.39% (depression) of subjects and it was statistically associated with age, gender, occupation, living environment and may present a secondary uprising problem connected to outbreak of COVID-19.