Depression and anxiety in the Malaysian urban population and their association with demographic characteristics, quality of life, and the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract The prevalence of depression and anxiety have been shown to be higher in the urban population compared with the rural population. The present study investigated the prevalence of depression, anxiety, and depression with comorbid anxiety and their associated factors in a random sample drawn from several urban communities in Malaysia. This study also compared the odds of developing depression, anxiety, and depression with comorbid anxiety before and after the emergence of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. We recruited 326 participants who were administered a sociodemographic characteristics questionnaire, the 21-item Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scale (DASS-21), to assess the presence or absence of depression, anxiety, and depression with comorbid anxiety, and the World Health Organization Quality of Life-BREF (WHOQoL-BREF) to assess their QoL. The following prevalence values were obtained among the participants: depression, 23.9%; anxiety, 41.7%; and depression with comorbid anxiety, 19.9%. The factors significantly associated with higher odds of psychological complications included those assessed after the emergence of COVID-19 as a global pandemic and the presence of comorbid stress. Higher physical health-related QoL, psychological QoL, and environment-related QoL reduced the odds of psychological complications. Based on our findings, we recommended a few measures to curb psychological complications among the urban population, particularly as the battle to contain COVID-19 is still ongoing.