Understanding Illness Anxiety in the Post-COVID Period: Insights from State and Trait Anxiety

Abstract

COVID-19 has been affecting the globe since the very start, and apart from the threat to individuals' physical health, it has also profoundly affected their psychological health. The objectives of the study were to measure illness anxiety amongst healthy people after the COVID-19 pandemic and to examine the association between state anxiety, trait anxiety, and perceived illness anxiety. The Short Health Illness Anxiety Inventory and the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory for Adults were used to collect the data. Data was collected from 294 participants by using Google Forms. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, independent-samples t-test, and hierarchical regression analyses. Regression analysis showed that state anxiety was a significant predictor of illness anxiety, but trait anxiety did not significantly predict illness anxiety. The study found that COVID-19 has, directly and indirectly, been a source of anxiety among people in Pakistan. Moreover, the severity observed varied across people with different demographic factors.