Comparison of COVID-19 Anxiety, Health Anxiety, and Cognitive Emotion Regulation Strategies in Militaries and Civilians during COVID-19 Outbreaks

Aims During the outbreak of COVID-19, the Militaries are still fighting against the virus alongside health care workers, so knowing the mental status of the military leads to identify their real needs and increase the performance of militaries. Therefore, the present study aimed to compare COVID-19 anxiety, health anxiety, and cognitive emotion regulation strategies between militaries and civilians during the outbreak of COVID-19. Instrument Methods This descriptive-analytical and cross-sectional study was conducted on military and civilian men living in Malayer, Hamedan, on September 1-6, 2020, coinciding with the prevalence of COVID-19. The researcher-made demographic information questionnaire, COVID-19 anxiety, health anxiety questionnaires, and cognitive emotion regulation strategies were completed by 204 people (102 militaries, 102 civilians). In order to prevent the spread of COVID-19, the convenience sampling method and internet implementation were used. Data were analyzed by descriptive statistics, independent t-test, and chi-square using SPSS 24 software. Findings The results showed that civilians had a longer history of infection to Covid-19 and history of Covid-19 in their relatives than militaries and there was no significant difference between militaries and civilians in terms of having suspicious symptoms and history of close contact with individuals with Covid-19 disease (p 0.05). Also, there was a significant and strong relationship between the job and COVID-19 anxiety (χ2=90.7; p=0.0001) and type of job and health anxiety (χ2=79.4; p=0.0001), and the militaries in term of COVID-19 and health anxiety were in a more inappropriate state. About half of the militaries (41.2%) had severe COVID-19 anxiety, and one-third of them (31.4%) had severe health anxiety. The militaries had a lower average than civilians in all aspects of adaptive and maladaptive cognitive emotion regulation strategies (p 0.05). Conclusion The level of health anxiety and anxiety of COVID-19 in the militaries is higher than in the normal population.