Evaluation of Cardiac Anxiety in Nurses During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Introduction: The world has been struggling with the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic for a while, which has brought adverse effects like psychological effects such as fear and anxiety. Healthcare workers are at the highest risk of exposure to the disease and anxiety, such as heart-focused anxiety (HFA). In this study, we aimed to investigate the cardiac anxiety states of nurses working in our hospital during the COVID-19 pandemic and the differences in their anxiety levels due to their workplaces.
Methods: This survey study was conducted in May 2020, when there were no proven COVID-19 vaccines yet, globally. An 18-item scale “Cardiac Anxiety Questionnaire” comprising fear, avoidance, and heart-related avoidance subscales, was applied to nurses who work in the isolation-service, intensivecare, and pandemic polyclinic units, where more than half of their total working time is allocated to attending patients diagnosed with COVID-19, and were examined as one group (isolation units group). The others were examined as another group (other units group).
Results: There are no significant differences due to age (p=0.198) and cardiac anxiety scoring between the groups (p>0.05). Moreover, there was not any difference regarding nurses’ stress scores (p=0.278) and the change in this situation before and after the COVID-19 pandemic (p=0.260). Working place and time coexistence did not significantly differ (p=0.458).
Discussion and Conclusion: Our study is the first to evaluate cardiac risk using the “CAQ scale” on healthcare workers during the COVID-19 pandemic. Multicenter studies with more healthcare professionals are needed. Our study can serve as a guide for future studies.

Keywords: Cardiac anxiety; Cardiac anxiety questionnaire; COVID-19 infection; Pandemic