GENERALIZED ANXIETY DISORDER AND ITS ASSOCIATED FACTORS AMONG FEMALE STUDENTS

Abstract

Background and Aim: To determine the Generalized Anxiety Disorder and its association with factors like hormonal changes, chronic illness among female students of university. Methodology: Perceptions and preferences of Female Students were determined in well-organized Institute (Superior University) with ages between 16-28 years old of all disciplines. Electronic self-administrated questionnaires consisting of two parts; demographics factors (Age, Gender, Designation, education Discipline, socioeconomic status and medical history) and Generalized Anxiety Disorder GAD-7, were then filled by the participated female students with sample size of 231. Then the perceptions and preferences were evaluated using a pre validated questionnaire (GAD-7) from previous research article. Results: A total of 231 responses were returned. All respondents were females. About (62.7%) of total respondents reported feeling nervous, anxious, or on edge to some degree; 10% of respondents said that they experience this feeling nearly every day. A significant proportion of respondents reported mild to moderate anxiety levels. The mean score of anxiety scale was 3.87±3.32 with minimum and maximum score of 0 and 19. The study findings give us a better considerate that Traumatic disorders (39.4 %), hormone issues (45.2%), were the main causes of anxiety. 39.8% indicated that they had a family history of anxiety. Overall, moderate to high levels of anxiety among the participants were observed. Conclusion: These results illustrate the need to devise treatment strategies to alleviate symptoms of generalized anxiety and reduce the prevalence of Generalized Anxiety Disorder among students. It is suggested that to decrease the level of anxiety among university students, regular counseling sessions should be implemented.