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Published on: July 19, 2017
Self-evaluated anxiety in the Norwegian population: prevalence and associated factors
Tore Bonsaksen1,2, Trond Heir3,4, Øivind Ekeberg5,6
1Department of Occupational Therapy, Prosthetics and Orthotics, Faculty of Health Sciences, OsloMet, Oslo Metropolitan University, PO Box 4, St. Olavs Plass, 0130 Oslo, Norway.
Background:
Self-evaluations of mental health problems may be a useful complement to diagnostic assessment, but are less frequently used. This study investigated the prevalence of self-evaluated current and lifetime anxiety in the general Norwegian population, and sociodemographic and psychological factors associated with current anxiety.
Methods:
A cross-sectional population survey was conducted, using anxiety stated by self-evaluation as outcome. Single and multivariate logistic regression analyses were conducted to examine associations between sociodemographic and psychological variables and anxiety.
Results:
One thousand six hundred eighty-four valid responses (34% of the eligible participants) were analysed in this study. One hundred and eleven participants (6.6%) reported current anxiety, while 365 (21.7%) reported lifetime anxiety. Adjusting for sociodemographic and psychological variables, higher age reduced the odds of current anxiety (OR = 0.87, 95% CI = 0.75-0.99), whereas higher levels of neuroticism increased the odds (OR = 2.04, 95% CI = 1.77-2.36).
Conclusions:
The study concludes that higher age appears to protect against anxiety, whereas neuroticism appears to increase the odds of experiencing anxiety.
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