Page 75 - IJPS-9-3

International Journal of

Population Studies

RESEARCH ARTICLE
Social contact with COVID-19 as a factor

influencing corona anxiety in India

1
1
Debaraj Das *, Suchitra Pal , and Brian M. Hughes 2
1 Department of OB-HRM, School of Human Resource Management, XIM University, Bhubaneswar,
Odisha, India
2 Department of Psychology, School of Psychology, National University of Galway, University Road,
Galway, Ireland

Abstract
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic is probably the worst in history, in
terms of its impact on mental health. In this context, a number of possible moderators
of mental health have been studied, but research on whether direct social contact with
COVID-19 influences what has been referred to as “corona anxiety” is largely absent,
especially in developing countries. This study attempted to examine the impact of
demographics, risk perception, and social contact with COVID-19 on the levels of
corona anxiety in India, based on a sample of 776 participants from both the general
public (n = 550) and hospital nursing staff (n = 226), comprising 373 male (48.1%) and
403 female (51.9%) participants. Overall, nurses were found to exhibit higher level of
corona anxiety than the general public. High-risk perception (β = 0.268, p < 0.001)
was found to be positively associated with corona anxiety. Female participants
(β = 0.31, p < 0.001) were found to exhibit higher level of corona anxiety compared
*Corresponding author: to their male counterparts. Regression analyses indicated that social contact with
Debaraj Das
(debaraj9@gmail.com) COVID-19 significantly aggravated corona anxiety across the study sample. Older
people showed higher level of corona anxiety compared to younger people. For
Citation: Das, D., Pal, S. & men, the impact of social contact with COVID-19 on corona anxiety was mostly
Hughes, B.M. (2023). Social
contact with COVID-19 as a factor prevalent among the individuals in the oldest age group (41 years or older), whereas
influencing corona anxiety in India. for women, the escalating impact of social contact with COVID-19 on corona anxiety
International Journal of Population was discernible throughout all age groups.
Studies, 9(3): 69-77.
https://doi.org/10.36922/ijps.1211
Received: June 30, 2023 Keywords: COVID-19; Anxiety; Risk perception; Health care; Social contact
Accepted: September 14, 2023
Published Online: October 25,
2023 1. Introduction
Copyright: © 2023 Author(s).
This is an Open-Access article The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic is probably the most disruptive
distributed under the terms of the pandemic the world has ever witnessed, with the longest extended lockdowns in human
Creative Commons Attribution history (Feehan & Apostolopoulos, 2021). Ever since the World Health Organization
License, permitting distribution,
and reproduction in any medium, (WHO) declared the COVID-19 pandemic as a “public health emergency of global
provided the original work is concern” on January 30, 2020, the psychological factors of public concern became apparent.
properly cited. Several studies during the pandemic indicated that the perceived risk associated with
Publisher’s Note: AccScience the virus created a climate of fear and anxiety among individuals affecting their mental
Publishing remains neutral with and physical health. Public perception of risk during a pandemic, such as COVID-19,
regard to jurisdictional claims in
published maps and institutional depends on the sociodemographic characteristics and on an individual’s conceptual
affiliations. difference in how one perceives the risks associated with self and others (Ibuka et al.,

Volume 9 Issue 3 (2023) 69 https://doi.org/10.36922/ijps.1211