{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,29]],"date-time":"2026-10-29T00:04:02Z","timestamp":1793232242127,"version":"4.5.0"},"reference-count":45,"publisher":"Frontiers Media SA","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2021,5,31]],"date-time":"2021-05-31T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1622419200000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["frontiersin.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Front. Psychiatry"],"abstract":"<jats:p><jats:bold>Introduction:<\/jats:bold> Health care workers, due to be involved in caring for COVID-19 patients may experience various psychological problems including anxiety disorders. This study aimed to investigate the prevalence of Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) among health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic by systematic review and meta-analysis.<\/jats:p><jats:p><jats:bold>Methods:<\/jats:bold> The PRISMA guideline was used for conducting this study. Related keywords were searched in credited resources including ISC, Magiran, PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, Cochrane, ProQuest, Science Direct, Google Scholar, and Embase to find the articles published on the prevalence of GAD among health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic from the first of January to the end of June 2020. Meta-analysis was conducted by the random effects model.<\/jats:p><jats:p><jats:bold>Results:<\/jats:bold> In this study, 553 articles were initially identified, from which 19 studies were finally included in the meta-analysis. The results showed that the prevalence of GAD in health care workers based on the GAD-7 and GAD-2 instruments were 32.04% (95% CI: 26.89\u201337.19, <jats:italic>I<\/jats:italic><jats:sup>2<\/jats:sup> = 98.2%, <jats:italic>p<\/jats:italic> &amp;lt; 0.001) and 22.62% (95% CI: 9.01\u201336.24, <jats:italic>I<\/jats:italic><jats:sup>2<\/jats:sup> = 97.7%, <jats:italic>p<\/jats:italic> &amp;lt; 0.001). The overall prevalence of GAD was obtained 30.5% (95% CI: 25.58\u201335.42, <jats:italic>I<\/jats:italic><jats:sup>2<\/jats:sup> = 98.4%, <jats:italic>p<\/jats:italic> &amp;lt; 0.001).<\/jats:p><jats:p><jats:bold>Conclusion:<\/jats:bold> This study showed a relatively high GAD prevalence, as one of the fundamental psychological problems, among health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore, health system managers should implement preventive strategies to protect health staff from contracting the virus and monitor them for psychological problems and provide them with supportive measures if necessary.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3389\/fpsyt.2021.658846","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2021,5,31]],"date-time":"2021-05-31T04:47:43Z","timestamp":1622436463000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":47,"title":["The Prevalence of Generalized Anxiety Disorder Among Health Care Workers During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis"],"prefix":"10.3389","volume":"12","author":[{"given":"Amir","family":"Adibi","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Mohamad","family":"Golitaleb","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Iman","family":"Farrahi-Ashtiani","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Davoud","family":"Pirani","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Kosar","family":"Yousefi","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Yousef","family":"Jamshidbeigi","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Ali","family":"Sahebi","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1965","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2021,5,31]]},"reference":[{"key":"B1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"100","DOI":"10.4103\/ijpvm.IJPVM_99_20","article-title":"Stress reduction strategies in the coronavirus pandemic","volume":"11","author":"Adibi","year":"2020","journal-title":"Int J Prevent Med."},{"key":"B2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"102066","DOI":"10.1016\/j.ajp.2020.102066","article-title":"COVID-19 and mental health: a review of the existing literature","volume":"52","author":"Rajkumar","year":"2020","journal-title":"Asian J Psychiatry"},{"key":"B3","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"102268","DOI":"10.1016\/j.janxdis.2020.102268","article-title":"Incremental validity of coronaphobia: Coronavirus anxiety explains depression, generalized anxiety, death anxiety","volume":"74","author":"Lee","year":"2020","journal-title":"J Anxiety Disord."},{"key":"B4","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"101990","DOI":"10.1016\/j.ajp.2020.101990","article-title":"Iranian mental health during the COVID-19 epidemic","volume":"51","author":"Zandifar","year":"2020","journal-title":"Asian J Psychiatry"},{"key":"B5","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"102326","DOI":"10.1016\/j.janxdis.2020.102326","article-title":"A state-of-the-art on pandemic-related fear, anxiety, and stress","volume":"76","author":"Asmundson","year":"2020","journal-title":"J Anxiety Disord."},{"key":"B6","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"110057","DOI":"10.1016\/j.pnpbp.2020.110057","article-title":"Psychiatric symptomatology associated with depression, anxiety, distress, and insomnia in health professionals working in patients affected by COVID-19: a systematic review with meta-analysis","volume":"104","author":"da Silva","year":"2020","journal-title":"Progr Neuro Psychopharmacol Biol Psychiatry."},{"key":"B7","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"111","DOI":"10.1016\/j.genhosppsych.2020.06.015","article-title":"Are healthcare workers during the COVID-19 pandemic at risk of psychosis? 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