Anxiety and Depression among the Nursing Staff, Saudi Arabia

BACKGROUND- Anxiety and depression are the most common mental problems that may affect workers' productivity. Diagnosing these disorders and determining their predisposing factors helps improving quality and productivity of workers; particularly nurses, with a positive impact on quality of service provided and as a preventive measure would save the cost of management of such disorders. PARTICIPANTS & METHODS- This questionnaire-based cross-sectional study was conducted between December 2021 and March 2022 and anonymously and voluntarily invited 250 nurses. Data were collected included the socio-demographic, anthropometric and life style data of participants and items of hospital anxiety and depression scale questionnaire. SPSS was used for data analysis that were presented as mean ± SD and frequencies; number (n) and percentage (%). RESULTS- Consented 215 nurses were enrolled giving a response rate of 86%. The mean ± SD score of anxiety was 8.4 ± 3.9 and the mean ± SD score of depression was 6.6 ± 3.9 and varied significantly by gender. The prevalence of anxiety and depression was 28.8% and 16.7%, respectively. There was significant association between anxiety and hospital location, body mass index, physical activity and overtime work. The hospital location, South Asian ethnicity, smoking, physical activity and night shift were all showed significant association with depression. CONCLUSION- Our figures are much lower than some international and national studies but still are higher than others. However, they are alarming to the needs of changes to improve the quality of nurses' life so as to ensure better healthcare services that save both sides the emotional and economic burden.