Anxiety and the associated factors among admitted surgical and medical patients, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia: A cross-sectional study

Abstract Background Anxiety is a common comorbid mental health problem with different medical illnesses and it can complicate major medical health problems. Despite its impact of physical functioning, quality of life, drug adherence, use of health service resources, good health behaviors, and increasing suicidal tendencies and mortality, it is neither diagnosed nor treated. Therefore, this study aimed to explore the prevalence of anxiety and its determinants among admitted patients for the contribution of attempting optimal care for of these patients. Method An institution based cross-sectional study was conducted among adult surgical and medical inpatients from May 13 to June 12, 2019. Systematic random sampling technique was used to recruit a total of 590 participants. Binary logistic regression was employed to identify factors associated with anxiety symptoms. Odds ratio with 95% confidence interval was used to assess the strength of the association, and variables with p-value of < 0.05 was declared as statistically significant. Result The overall prevalence of anxiety was 62.7% with 95% CI (58.6, 66.9). In the multivariate analysis; female sex, being single, previous history of admission, and multiple medical diagnosis were factors significantly associated with anxiety symptoms. Conclusion In this study, the prevalence of anxiety among medical and surgical inpatients was found to be high. Therefore, it is better to screen any risks of anxiety, and psychological assessment tests are better to be integrated into routine hospital inpatient care to prevent anxiety.