WITHDRAWN Assessing the Level of Anxiety in Patients With Asthma During the Spread of Coronovirus Infection

OBJECTIVES: The COVID-19 pandemic has a strong impact on the population around the world, including patients with asthma.The aim of our study was to determine the anxiety level of healthy people and patients with asthma during the Covid-19 pandemic.

METHODS: The cross-sectional study involved 20 healthy people and 20 patients with asthma.The age of participants is from 18 to 63 years.C.D. Spielberger's Scale of Reactive and Personal Anxiety was used for the survey.

RESULTS: The level of anxiety in two groups was assessed by two indicators, the level of reactive and personal anxiety.According to the scale, if the sum of the points scored is up to 30 - low anxiety, 31-45-average anxiety, 46 and higher - high anxiety.In the first group of participants with asthma, it turned out that 5% had low, 35% had medium, and 60% had high reactive anxiety. Also in this group of patients, 55% had medium and 45% high personal anxiety. In the second group, consisting of healthy people, 50% had average reactive anxiety and the rest had low. The average personal anxiety in this group was 65%, and the remaining 35% was high. Using the Mann-Whitney U-test, we determined the statistical significance of the differences in the indicators of the two groups. According to the results of the reactive anxiety scale, significant differences were revealed (p < 0.001). Consequently, the relationship between reactive anxiety during the pandemic and the presence of asthma is statistically significant. When comparing the indicator of the "Personal anxiety scale" depending on the indicator of the "Presence of asthma", we were unable to establish statistically significant differences (p = 0.771) (method used: Student's t–test).

CONCLUSIONS: Based on the results, we came to the conclusion that the pandemic period had a greater impact on the level of reactive anxiety in patients with bronchial asthma than on healthy people.