Abstract
This study aimed to estimate the association between anxiety associated with COVID-19 and somatic symptoms, using data from a large, representative sample (N = 2,025) of the UK adult population. Results showed that moderate to high levels of anxiety associated with COVID-19 were significantly associated with general somatic symptoms and in particular with gastrointestinal and fatigue symptoms. This pattern of associations remained significant after controlling for generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), pre-existing health problems, age, gender, and income. This is the first evidence that anxiety associated with COVID-19 makes a unique contribution to somatization, above and beyond the effect of GAD.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 875-882 |
Number of pages | 8 |
Journal | British Journal of Health Psychology |
Volume | 25 |
Issue number | 4 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 1 Nov 2020 |
Keywords
- Anxiety Disorders/epidemiology
- Anxiety/epidemiology
- Betacoronavirus
- COVID-19
- Coronavirus Infections
- Female
- Humans
- Male
- Medically Unexplained Symptoms
- Pandemics
- Pneumonia, Viral
- SARS-CoV-2
- United Kingdom/epidemiology