March 2020 Vol. 8 No3

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Original Research Article

Impact of Infodemics on Generalized Anxiety Disorder, Sleep Quality and Depressive Symptoms among Pakistani Social Media Users during Epidemics of COVID-19

^*1Dr. Wajiha Anzar, ²Dr. Qaiser Ali Baig, ³Dr. Ashar Afaq, ⁴Dr. Talal Bin Taheer and ⁵Dr. Sumreen Amar

¹Department of Community and Preventive dentistry, Dow International Dental College, Karachi, Pakistan
²Department of Community and Preventive dentistry, Dow International Dental College, Karachi, Pakistan
³Department of Community and Preventive dentistry, Dow International Dental College, Karachi, Pakistan
⁴Registrar, Department of Medical Education, Baqai Dental College
⁵Fellow of Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (FRACGP), Australia

*Corresponding Author’s Email: wajiha.anzar1@gmail.com
Tel.: 00923463241706

Accepted March 21, 2020

Abstract

Novel coronavirus is declared pandemic by World health organization. Following the outbreak there was a lot of misinformation on social media leading stress among masses. Efforts are being made worldwide to reduce COVID-19 but misinformation or infodemics on social media has led to serious issue. The objective of this study was to investigate impact of infodemics on Generalize anxiety disorder (GAD), quality of sleep and depression among Pakistani social media users during epidemics of COVID-19.A web based survey was conducted which included 303 participants. Questionnaire was based on: sociodemographics, generalized anxiety disorder scale, shortened Pittsburgh sleep quality index (short PSQI) and Center for epidemiology scale for depression (CES-D). Statistically significant difference between variables GAD, Quality of sleep and depressive symptoms was found (p <0.05). GAD was significantly associated with variables like occupation, gender and time spent on social media (p = 0.001, p= 0.001, p=0.003) .Prevalence of GAD, Quality of Sleep disturbance and depressive symptoms was found to be 94 (31%), 21 (6.9%) and 42 (13.9%) respectively.

Keywords: Infodemics, epidemics, generalized anxiety disorder, sleep quality, depressive symptoms