Prevalence of Generalized Anxiety Disorder among Medical Residents in Hamad Medical Corporation in 2020

Abstract

Background: The mental health of healthcare professionals is essential because it affects their performance in different ways. This study aims to estimate the prevalence of generalized anxiety disorder among medical residents working in various specialties at Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC) and to determine the most common contributing factors. The study also aims to evaluate the awareness of availability of mental health services for medical residents. Methods: A cross-sectional study that used an anonymous paper survey consisted of four sections: introductory information section, the 7-item anxiety scale, Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 (GAD-7), the possible causes of anxiety, and the awareness of availability of mental health services. All medical residents from all programs throughout all postgraduate year levels in HMC were invited to participate in the study. The sample size of 244 was calculated based on a population size of 666, a precision of 0.05, and a 95% confidence interval. The data were analyzed by a biostatistician using SPSS for Windows (Version 25.0; IBM Corp., Armonk, NY, USA). Results: Of the 244 participants, 73 (29.9 %) reported anxiety symptoms with a GAD-7 score of 10 or more; the only variable that had a statistically significant effect on anxiety was residency status, with 37.9% of overseas residents reporting anxiety compared to 21.1% of locals (p = 0.005). The prevalence of anxiety fluctuated between post-graduate years, with 25.3% in participants of year 1, 35.9% in year 2, 34.1% in year 3, 24.3% in year 4, 23.1% in year 5, 50% (2 participants) in year 6, and 100% (1 participant) in year 7 (p = 0.397). Prevalence of anxiety was higher in non-surgical programs 32.4% than in surgical problems 23.9% (p = 0.192). There were some statistically significant differences in possible causes of anxiety between those with and without anxiety. Career planning was the most common cause among those with anxiety (82.2%) and was the fifth most common cause among those without anxiety (63.7%) (p = 0.003). The workload was the second most common cause of anxiety in participants with anxiety (79.5%) compared to 73.1% in those without anxiety (p = 0.104). Only 31.5% of participants with anxiety were aware of mental health services provided by HMC to their staff compared to 45.0% of those without anxiety (p = 0.042). However, only 8.7% of those with anxiety and 14.3% of those without anxiety who were aware of the services would utilize them (p = 0.472). Lack of time was the most common cause of not utilizing the services among those with anxiety (61.1%) compared to 26.2% in those without anxiety. Confidentiality issues were indicated by 33.3% of participants with anxiety and 1.5% of those without anxiety. Conclusions: This study highlights the prevalence of anxiety disorders among medical residents, and it was found to be high but relatively like the prevalence found in other studies internationally and locally. The level of anxiety was significantly higher among overseas residents in comparison to local residents. This study also detected the most common contributing factors, which were found to be career planning followed by workload. There was a significant number of residents who were not aware of the presence of mental health services within the institution; in addition, among those with anxiety who were aware of the mental health services but not utilizing them, there were two common reasons, the lack of time followed by confidentiality issues. Key words: Generalized anxiety disorder, prevalence, medical residents, residency program, Qatar