A Brief Communication: Anxiety and Depression Levels in the Staff of a Nigerian Private University during COVID 19 Pandemic Outbreak
Author(s): Ochilbek Rakhmanov, Abdullah Demir and Senol Dane*
Abstract
Introduction: At present, to prevent the spread of the epidemic, the Nigerian government has enforced strict quarantine measures across the country. In the present study, the anxiety and depression levels of academic and non-academic staff and their unemployment relatives of an African university towards COVID-19 during the epidemic outbreak was investigated.
Method: Sixty-nine subjects were included in the study. Participants were 49 men and 20 women who were 17-21 years of age. To get their anxiety scores, the questions selected by referencing previous and current epidemic studies were used and Self Reporting Questionnaire, SRQ-20 to collect the data on depression.
Results: The anxiety and depression levels were higher in women than in men. Academic staff had lower anxiety and depression scores than unemployed relatives of academic and non-academic staff. There was significant correlation between anxiety and depression scores.
Conclusion: The low anxiety and depression levels in academic staff may be attributed to a piece of high and correct knowledge related to COVID 19. The correlation between anxiety and depression was weak in academic staff, but strong in non-academic and unemployed subjects. The present study and literature show that the knowledge levels of people should be increased to decrease their anxiety and depression by means of online systems.