Associations between social support and anxiety during the COVID-19 lockdown in young and middle-aged Israelis: A cross-sectional study

Table 1 Characteristics of participants according to Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 score, represented by medians and interquartile range

Variable	Total (n = 655)	GAD-7 score < 9 (n = 585)	GAD-7 score ≥ 9 (n = 70)	P value
Age (yr)	30 (26-47)	31 (26-49)	27 (23-33)	< 0.001
Gender				0.007
Male	246 (37.6%)	230 (39.3%)	16 (22.9%)
Female	409 (62.4%)	355 (60.7%)	54 (77.1%)
Number of children				0.008
Zero	392 (59.8%)	336 (57.4%)	56 (80.0%)
One	37 (5.6%)	34 (5.8%)	3 (4.3%)
Two	95 (14.5%)	91 (15.6%)	4 (5.7%)
Three	100 (15.3%)	94 (16.1%)	6 (8.6%)
Four	31 (4.7%)	30 (5.1%)	1 (1.4%)
Education				0.003
Without diploma	23 (3.5%)	21 (3.6%)	2 (2.9%)
12 years or less	125 (19.1%)	102 (17.4%)	23 (32.9%)
Bachelor	295 (45.0%)	260 (44.4%)	35 (50.0%)
Master (or higher)	187 (28.5%)	178 (30.4%)	9 (12.9%)
Other	25 (3.8%)	24 (4.1%)	1 (1.4%)
Socio-economic status				< 0.001
Low	21 (3.2%)	16 (2.7%)	5 (7.1%)
Low-average	79 (2.1%)	60 (10.3%)	19 (27.1%)
Average	281 (42.9%)	252 (43.1%)	29 (41.1%)
Average-high	224 (34.2%)	209 (35.7%)	15 (21.4%)
High	50 (7.6%)	48 (8.2%)	2 (2.9%)
Occupation				0.029
Full-time job	280 (42.7%)	261 (44.6%)	19 (27.1%)
Partially employed	109 (16.6%)	90 (15.4%)	19 (27.1%)
Unpaid vacation	4 (0.6%)	4 (0.7%)	0 (0.0%)
Lost job	33 (5.0%)	31 (5.3%)	2 (2.9%)
Unemployed	55 (8.4%)	47 (8.0%)	8 (11.4%)
Retired	174 (26.6%)	152 (26.0%)	22 (31.4%)
Exercise				0.112
Yes	190 (29.0%)	164 (28.0%)	26 (37.1%)
No	465 (71.0%)	421 (72.0%)	44 (62.9%)
History of depression				< 0.001
Yes	538 (82.1%)	494 (84.4%)	44 (62.9%)
No	117 (17.9%)	91 (15.6%)	26 (37.1%)
Use of antidepressants				0.001
Yes	563 (86.0%)	512 (87.5%)	51 (72.9%)
No	92 (14.0%)	73 (12.5%)	19 (27.1%)
MSPSS score	6.08 (5.25-6.67)	6.08 (5.33-6.75)	5.75 (4.67-6.50)	0.009
GAD-7 score	3 (1-6)	3 (1-5)	13 (11-15)	< 0.001

MSPSS: Multidimensional Perceived Social Support Scale; GAD-7: Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7.

Table 2 Associations of Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 score with Multidimensional Perceived Social Support Scale score (regression coefficient and 95% confidence intervals)

Variable	Univariate linear regression		Multivariate linear regression
	β (95%CI)	P value	β (95%CI)	P value
MSPSS	-0.692 (-0.990, -0.394)	< 0.001	-0.779 (-1.063, -0.496)	< 0.001
Age	-0.056 (-0.077, -0.035)	< 0.001	-0.048 (-0.068, -0.028)	< 0.001
Sex	1.888 (1.246, 2.529)	0.316	1.641 (1.021, 2.261)	< 0.001
Number of children	-0.524 (-0.760, -0.289)	< 0.001	-	-
Education	-0.399 (-0.763, -0.034)	0.032	-	-
Occupation	0.142 (-0.006, 0.289)	0.059	-	-
Socio-economic status	-0.952 (-1.300, -0.603)	< 0.001	-0.514 (-0.854, -0.174)	0.003
Exercise	-0.460 (-1.162, 0.241)	0.198	-	-
Use of antidepressants	2.589 (1.781, 3.397)	< 0.001	2.046 (1.279, 2.813)	< 0.001

MSPSS: Multidimensional Perceived Social Support Scale; CI: Confidence interval.

Table 3 Odds ratios (95% confidence intervals) of anxiety (Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 score ≥ 9) across Multidimensional Perceived Social Support Scale score

Variable	Univariate logistic regression		Multivariate logistic regression
	OR (95%CI)	P value	OR (95%CI)	P value
MSPSS	0.747 (0.605, 0.921)	0.006	0.709 (0.563, 0.894)	0.004
Age	0.965 (0.944, 0.986)	0.001	0.976 (0.953, 0.999)	0.041
Sex	2.187 (1.222, 3.913)	0.008	2.151 (1.142, 4.053)	0.018
Number of children	0.658 (0.514, 0.842)	0.001	-	-
Education	0.617 (0.464, 0.822)	0.001	0.615 (0.445, 0.851)	0.003
Occupation	1.096 (0.980, 1.227)	0.109	-	-
Socio-economic status	0.539 (0.409, 0.710)	< 0.001	0.628 (0.465, 0.849)	0.003
Exercise	0.659 (0.393, 1.106)	0.114	-	-
Use of antidepressants	2.613 (1.461, 4.672)	0.001	2.588 (1.384, 4.841)	0.004

MSPSS: Multidimensional Perceived Social Support Scale; CI: Confidence interval; OR: Odds ratio.