Abstract

Background: Healthcare providers face a great pressure of diagnosing, isolating, and treating patients who are affected by COVID-19 as well as the fear of being infected with the virus and passing it on to loved ones and family members. This study aimed to assess the anxiety among the residents of family medicine during the COVID-19 pandemic in Saudi Arabia.
Methodology: This study was a cross-sectional survey of multicenter hospitals in Saudi Arabia. A self-administered English questionnaire was used for data collection.
Results: Out of 349 participants, 52.1% of the residents were male, 75% were between 25 and 30 years of age. Results showed that three-quarters of the participated residents suffered from anxiety and most of them had mild (32%) and moderate anxiety (33%).
Conclusion: The COVID-19 pandemic affected the family medicine residents’ program, the change that happened in their rotation and exam date affected the family residents psychologically. It is necessary to do a psychological intervention to improve the mental health of the family resident during the pandemic.

Key words: COVID-19, anxiety, family medicine residents.