Examining Anxiety Caused by COVID-19 Pandemic Among Lung Cancer Patients

Lung cancer is the most prevalent cancer in Markazi province. Anxiety could lessen the patients' immune system rendering them more susceptible to illnesses like COVID-19. As lung cancer patients are vulnerable to contracting COVID-19 because of using various drugs (corticosteroids and other immunosuppressant drugs), it is essential to provide correct information on infection prevention approaches to these patients. This cross-sectional analytical study was performed in 2021 on 87 lung cancer patients in Markazi Province, with the demographic information questionnaire and the coronavirus anxiety scale questionnaire as data collection tools. The scoring spectrum was 0-54. Data analysis was conducted in SPSS 23 using a t-test and ANOVA or its non-parametric equivalent. A p-value less than 0.05 was deemed noteworthy. It was found that 37.55% of the patients had anxiety and 41.5%, were anxious in the mental and 34.5% in the physical aspects. Moreover, it was found that women, especially housewives, experience more anxiety, particularly in the psychological aspect. Furthermore, it was found that patients with at least one history of infection or a positive history of COVID-19 in the family indicated a level of overall anxiety and more anxiety in the psychological aspect. The patients under examination had an average age of 52.6 years, indicating that the older the patients were, the less anxious they were.