The Lurking Peril of the Pandemic: The Relationship Between COVID-19 News Consumption and Anxiety

Abstract

This is a significant period in American history, as the COVID-19 pandemic has recently become a major part of daily life. While physical health has been the obvious focus during this time, mental health has also been severely impacted. Mental health is often given less importance in times of great physical danger such as this one. The country has also been inundated with news about the ongoing crisis. These factors led to the analysis of the relationship between the degree to which an individual follows the news surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic and their anxiety levels. The sample came from Wave 64 of the Pew Research Center’s American Trends Panel, published on April 1, 2020. Chi square tests of independence revealed following COVID-19 news and anxiety level were significantly associated in general (χ2 = 158.55, 1 df, p < .001), as well as specifically among those who consider the pandemic a crisis, (χ2 = 50.36, 1 df, p < .001) and those who do not, (χ2 = 3.89, 1 df, p = .048). After adjusting for crisis perception, following COVID-19 news (OR 1.35, CI 1.24-1.47, p < .001) was significantly and positively associated with the likelihood of higher anxiety, suggesting those who follow news more closely are 1.35 times more likely to have higher anxiety. These results indicate that those who follow COVID-19 more closely may have higher anxiety than those who do not, and that those who do not consider the pandemic to be a crisis seem to receive the same effect from following the news as those who do.