Prevalence of anxiety among environmental and occupational health students in Qazvin University of Medical Sciences, Iran, in 2015

Background: Anxiety disorders are among the most common types of psychological disorders in the world. Anxiety is an inseparable part of every person’s life and it seems that it is experienced more severely by university students. The present study aimed to investigate the prevalence of anxiety and its related factors among environmental and occupational health students. Materials and Methods: In this descriptive cross-sectional study in 2015, the participants were selected through census-based sampling; all the Bachelor students (continuous and discontinuous) of environmental and occupational health (141 respondents) from Qazvin University of Medical Sciences, Iran, participated in this research. Data were collected using a demographic questionnaire and Spielberger State-Trait Anxiety Inventory measuring respondents’ level of anxiety. The collected data were analyzed by independent samples t-test, analysis of variance, and Pearson correlation in SPSS software. Results: The prevalence rates of state and trait anxiety in the sample were 29.1% and 20.6%, respectively. Furthermore, 29.1% of students of environmental health and 57.9% of students of occupational health suffered from moderate to high levels of anxiety. The greatest prevalence of trait anxiety among students of environmental and occupational health was recorded for below moderate anxiety with indices of 72.8% and 84.2%, respectively. On the other hand, no significant relationship was observed between students’ year of study (ranging from the first to the fourth year) and state/trait anxiety. However, the results of Pearson correlation showed that there was a significant negative relationship between students’ grade point average and trait anxiety. Conclusions: Anxiety among university students of environmental and occupational health range from moderate to high. Some measures should be taken to reduce this level of anxiety.