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Infectious Illness Symptoms Are Associated with Elevated Anxiety in a Sample of Sexual and Gender Minority Young Adults During the COVID-19 Pandemic

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Abstract

Background

To evaluate whether infectious illness symptoms (IIS) are associated with generalized anxiety symptoms during the COVID-19 pandemic in sexual/gender (SGM) minority young adults assigned male at birth (AMAB).

Method

Four hundred eighteen participants (median age = 25; range, 20–40) were recruited through RADAR, an ongoing Chicago-based cohort study of SGM-AMAB between September 2020 and February 2021. Participants completed online surveys. A subset (n = 145) provided dried blood spot samples to assess SARS-CoV-2 serostatus.

Results

One hundred twenty participants (28.7%) had GAD-7 scores of 10 or greater, which indicates generalized anxiety symptoms that may be clinically significant. In a binomial logistic regression model adjusting age, gender identity, race/ethnicity, substance use, and HIV status, the authors found that having a higher IIS count since March 1, 2020, was associated with greater odds of having a GAD-7 score of 10 or greater (OR = 1.14; 95% CI, 1.04, 1.25; P = 0.007). This effect was more pronounced in a binomial logistic regression model adjusting for the same covariates but using current IIS count as the independent variable (OR = 1.39; 95% CI, 1.13, 1.74; P = 0.002).

Conclusion

Among SGM-AMAB young adults, those who experienced ISS reported higher scores on the GAD-7, a widely used and validated screening measure for generalized anxiety symptoms. These findings highlight the importance of screening for anxiety disorders when patients present with IIS in clinical settings and psychobehavioral health follow-ups when indicated.

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Data Availability

The data underlying this study will be made available upon reasonable request.

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Funding

This work was supported by the NIH NIDA grants U24 DA044554, 3U24DA044554-04S1, and 3U01DA036939-06S1.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for Sexual and Gender Minority Health and Wellbeing, Northwestern University, 625 N Michigan Ave, Suite 14, Chicago, IL, 60611, USA

    Chitra S. Iyer, Joshua M. Schrock, Anthony Johnson, Michael E. Newcomb & Brian Mustanski

  2. Department of Anthropology, Northwestern University, 1810 Hinman Avenue, Evanston, IL, 60208, USA

    Joshua M. Schrock & Thomas W. McDade

  3. Department of Epidemiology, University of California, Los Angeles, 650 Charles E Young Dr S, Room 41-295, Los Angeles, CA, 90095, USA

    Pamina M. Gorbach

  4. Frontier Science, 4033 Maple Road, Amherst, NY, 14226, USA

    Sue Siminski

  5. Department of Medical Social Sciences, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, 633 N. St Clair Street, 19th Floor, Chicago, IL, 60611, USA

    Michael E. Newcomb & Brian Mustanski

  6. Institute for Policy Research, Northwestern University, 2040 Sheridan Road, Evanston, IL, 60208, USA

    Thomas W. McDade

Authors
  1. Chitra S. Iyer
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Brian Mustanski.

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Ethical Approval

All study procedures and protocol involving human participants were approved by the University Institutional Review Board (STU00087614) and adhere to the tenets of the Declaration of Helsinki.

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Informed consent was obtained from all participants included in the study.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Iyer, C.S., Schrock, J.M., Johnson, A. et al. Infectious Illness Symptoms Are Associated with Elevated Anxiety in a Sample of Sexual and Gender Minority Young Adults During the COVID-19 Pandemic. Int.J. Behav. Med. (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12529-023-10251-5

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