Background

The increasing menace of the COVID-19 epidemic led to an atmosphere of anxiety around the world, however the evidence among Chinese students aged 12 to 18 years has been limited.

Methods

A total of 373216 junior and senior high school students were recruited using a cluster sampling method in Zhengzhou, Xinxiang, Xinyang city of Henan Province, China, during February 4-12, 2020. Presence of anxiety symptoms was determined by Generalized Anxiety Disorder tool (GAD-7). Multiple logistic regression was performed to estimate the potential risk factors.

Results

Among the participants, junior and senior high school students were found to have anxiety symptoms, producing an overall prevalence of 9.89%. The prevalence was lower in female than in male (9.66% vs. 10.11%) and the prevalence was higher for junior high school students than senior high school students (13.89% vs. 12.93%). The prevalence of anxiety symptoms was highest among rural students and lowest among urban students (11.33% vs. 8.77%). The cognitive level was negatively associated with the prevalence of anxiety symptoms. After adjusting for potential confounders, age, gender, residential location, worried level, fear level and behavior status were found to be associated with anxiety symptoms.

Limitations

Prevalence may be skewed by assessing anxiety symptoms using self-reported scales rather than clinical interviews.

Conclusions

This large-scale study assesses the prevalence of anxiety symptoms and its potential influencing factors in junior and senior high school students. These findings suggest that governments need to pay more attention to the mental health of young people in combating COVID-19.