Stress and Anxiety Among Bank Staffs Facing COVID-19 Outbreak: A Cross-sectional Study

Background: The prevalence of coronavirus has become one of the most important challenges and concerns, and awareness of the mental health status of people in the workplace has become an important issue. Bank staff, like other workers, maybe under severe physical and psychological stress. Objectives: The study aimed to investigate the degree of anxiety among bank staff during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: The present cross-sectional study was conducted among the bank staff by participating 199 employees. The corona disease anxiety scale (CDAS) questionnaire was used to gather data. For analyzing data, the t-test and chi-square test was applied. Results: 160 males (80.4%) and 39 females (19.6%) participated in the study. 55.6% of the participants reported that when they think about COVID-19, it leads to anxiety, and 38.3% said that they feel sad when they think about the danger of corona often. The results showed that an underlying disease increases the chance of being infected with COVID-19 (OR = 3.786, 95% CI: 1.227 - 8.708 and P = 0.018). Also, the results revealed a significant relationship between increasing physical symptoms and psychological symptoms in participants and the probability of being infected with COVID-19. Conclusions: The results showed that stress and anxiety among bank employees increased during the COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore, making the necessary arrangements to reduce stress and anxiety among employees through proper politicization and more managers' attention to this phenomenon in this period is essential.