Prevalence and factors associated with anxiety disorder in undergraduate students of Peshawar, kpk, Pakistan: a cross-sectional study

Background: Anxiety is a widespread mental health concern that impacts a significant portion of the general population. Functional impairment and negative effects on quality of life are associated with it. Objectives: To assess the prevalence of anxiety among undergraduate students in Peshawar and determine the factors associated with it. Methodology: A cross-sectional study design was employed and 400 undergraduate students were included in the study from Peshawar, Pakistan. Data was gathered from various institutions located in Peshawar including The University of Peshawar (UOP), the Department of gender studies, the Department of Peace and Conflict Studies, and the Department of pharmacy from The University of Peshawar (UOP), Kabir Medical College, Sardar Begum Dental College (SBDC), Jinnah College for Women (GCW). The Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale (HAM-A) was employed to analyze the prevalence of anxiety among students. SPSS version 26 was employed to analyze the data. Chi-square was used to find the association between different factors and anxiety. A p-value of less than 0.05 was considered significant. Results: The mean age of the participants was 20.04±2.26 years. A total of 138 participants (34.5%) were male, while 262 participants (65.5%) were female. The overall prevalence of anxiety among undergraduate students of Peshawar came out to be 50.5%. Anxiety was strongly linked to dissatisfaction with family relationships (p-value = 0.00), dissatisfaction with career goals (p-value = 0.03), and the use of illicit drugs (p-value = 0.02). Additionally, physical discomfort (p-value = 0.00), low self-confidence (p-value = 0.00), and experiencing mental trauma in the past year (p-value = 0.00) were significantly associated with increased anxiety. Furthermore, anxiety was related to experiencing physical trauma (p-value = 0.04) and struggling with comfortable sleep (p-value = 0.00). Conclusion: This study demonstrates that anxiety is prevalent among undergraduate students in Peshawar. Developing targeted interventions to alleviate anxiety in this population may be facilitated by addressing these factors.