Prevalence of Anxiety among Paramedic Students in Saudi Arabia

Abstract Background: Anxiety disorders are the most common of all psychiatric illnesses and result in considerable functional impairment and distress. The stressful nature and hard work demand of studying and practicing paramedics makes them more prone to psychiatric illnesses one of which is Anxiety. The aim of this study is to determine the prevalence of anxiety among paramedic students in Saudi Arabia.Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among Paramedic students of third and fourth year from Emergency Medical Services of College of Applied Medical Sciences at all KSAU-HS branches in Jeddah, Riyadh and Al-Ahsa’a in Saudi Arabia. Data were collected in May 2020. The study utilized the General Anxiety Disorder -7 (GAD-7) test to screen for anxiety and assess its severity level in paramedic students. Results: There were a total of 181 participants, of which 133 (73.5%) were male students, and with almost all participants being unmarried (99.4%). For GAD-7 test, 32.6% had no anxiety, while the most had mild anxiety (43.1%), and 14.9% had moderate anxiety, with the fewest (9.4%) had severe anxiety.Conclusion: Significant levels of anxiety were reported among the students and most of them showed excessive levels of worrying and nervousness, which affected their academically and occupationally. Hopefully, more researches are required to assess the prevalence of anxiety among paramedic practitioners. Addressing the problem at an earlier stage will positively affect the students who will become practitioners in the future.