Like depression, anxiety affects many more people than you’d think by looking around–hundreds of millions, globally–and it affects people of all socioeconomic classes, geographic locations and ages. A new study in the journal Brain and Behavior looks back over a large number of studies on the prevalence of anxiety and arrives at some interesting results–women suffer from anxiety about twice as often as men, for instance. The study also finds that younger people and those living in certain parts of the world are much more likely than others to have anxiety.
The study, from the University of Cambridge, looked at 1,200 previous studies on the prevalence of anxiety, 48 of which met the researchers' criteria for inclusion. The average rate of anxiety across the globe was about 4%–that is, 4 out of 100 people experience anxiety. In North America it was highest, at about 8%. In East Asia, it was lowest, at just under 3%.
Women were twice as like to have anxiety as men, and it didn’t seem to matter what kind of income the women had. Younger people–those under 35–were also more likely to be anxious. People with chronic health problems like heart disease or multiple sclerosis were also more likely to be anxious than healthy individuals. And pregnant women and those who had recently given birth were more likely to have obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) than other women.
The research also found that data on other subgroups, like indigenous cultures in North America, Australia and New Zealand, were too sparse to really understand the prevalence of anxiety. The same was true for drug users, young homeless people and sex workers, as well as for people identifying as lesbian, gay or bisexual.
"Anxiety disorders can make life extremely difficult for some people and it is important for our health services to understand how common they are and which groups of people are at greatest risk,” said study author Olivia Remes."By collecting all these data together, we see that these disorders are common across all groups, but women and young people are disproportionately affected. Also, people who have a chronic health condition are at a particular risk, adding a double burden on their lives."
The results aren’t totally surprising, but they are telling, given the size and rigor of the study. Previous studies have certainly found that anxiety is more prevalent among women, and this trend may be true for a couple of reasons. Women tend to have depression more often than men as well, and this frequently goes hand-in-hand with anxiety. Hormonal differences may also contribute to the higher prevalence of anxiety in women, especially during bigger shifts like after giving birth and during menopause. Women also tend to have more ruminative thoughts than men, which can fuel not only depression but also anxiety.
More research will be needed to understand more about how anxiety works, but clearly it’s far too common. There’s no clear solution, except to keep urging people to seek treatment, try the various self-care methods like exercise and meditation, and to feel freer to talk about it, rather than keeping it to oneself. A new and powerful trend is happening in social media, in which people are sharing their struggles in various ways–for instance, photographing themselves mid- or post-panic attack to show what their anxiety actually looks like. Not everyone uses social media, of course, and there are many groups across the globe for whom the stigma of mental illness is still overwhelming, and treatment is not readily available. But in general, if more people begin to see mental health disorders as a common occurrence, rather than a rare and embarrassing one, maybe people will be more inclined to get help, and not feel so alone.
