Anxiety in Iranian Nurses during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Meta-Analysis

Objective (s): The outbreak of Covid-19 induced many psychological consequences on various segments of society, including nurses. Fear and anxiety caused by the Covid-19 epidemic in nurses, in addition to triggering mental disorders, could reduce the quality of services and increase the costs of the health system. Therefore, this study was performed to assess anxiety of Iranian nurses during the corona epidemic. Methods: This meta-analysis included all published papers reporting on anxiety in Iranian nurses during the corona epidemic. Heterogeneity of studies was evaluated using theI2 index and the probability of diffusion in diffusion by Egger test and meta-regression model to evaluate the variables suspected of heterogeneity at a significance level of 0.05. Finally, 15 articles were analyzed using CMA software. Results: Based on the random-effects model, the mean and standard deviation of the anxiety of Iranian nurses during the corona pandemic was equal to 21.96 ± 3.18 (10.17-15.71; 95% confidence interval). The highest mean and standard deviation of nurses' anxiety in 2020 was equal to 44.08 ± 0.76 (42.58- 45.57; 95% confidence interval) and the lowest mean and standard deviation of nurses' anxiety in 2020 was equal to 4.37 ± 0.38 (3.60 -5.13; 95% confidence interval). There was also a significant relationship between sample size and anxiety of Iranian nurses during the corona epidemic (P