fear, anxiety and depression among bosnia and herzegovina citizens during the third wave of covid-19

Objective: during the covid-19 pandemic, fear, anxiety, and depression have become global concerns among the wider public. this study aimed to examine the occurrence of fear, anxiety and depressive symptoms associated with covid-19, to assess influencing factors that lead to the development of these mental health conditions and to examine any changes in the mental health patterns of the society since the initial study a year ago in sarajevo, bosnia and herzegovina. method: an anonymous online survey based on fear of covid-19 scale (fcv-19s), general anxiety disorder-7 (gad-7) and patients health questionnaires (phqs) was conducted in the general population of sarajevo in bosnia and herzegovina. results: from 1096 subjects, 81.3% were females, 33.8% had a high school degree, 56.4% were married, 53.4% were engaged in intellectual labor, 42.3% experienced fear, 72.9% had anxiety symptoms and 70.3% had depressive symptoms during the covid-19 pandemic and their mean age was 35.84 ± 10.86. half (50.1%) of the subjects were covid-19 positive and 63.8% had covid-19 symptoms when responding to the questionnaire. experiencing covid-19 related fear (or = 1.972) and having moderate to severe depressive symptoms (or = 9.514) were associated with the development of mild to severe anxiety symptoms during the covid-19 pandemic, which were in turn associated with the development of moderate to severe depressive symptoms (or = 10.203) and covid-19 related fear (or = 2.140), respectively, thus creating a potential circulus vicious. covid-19 positive subjects (or = 1.454) were also more likely to develop mild to severe anxiety symptoms during the covid-19 pandemic. conclusion: in conclusion, the prevalence of fear, anxiety symptoms and depressive symptoms rose dramatically since the beginning of the covid-19 pandemic in bosnia and herzegovina. they were interconnected and were significantly associated with age, gender, marital status and covid-19 status. therefore, an urgent mental health intervention is needed for the prevention of mental health problems.