Comparison of the Effect of Exercise, Music and Practice of Religious Beliefs on Anxiety Caused by COVID-19 in Medical Staff

Rapid transmission of COVID-19 and its rising mortality increased anxiety in medical staff. The aim of this study was to compare the effect of exercise, practice of religious beliefs and listening to music on COVID-19 anxiety in the medical staff.

This quasi-experimental study was performed in a pre-test and post-test with 6 experimental groups and a control group. The study population was the medical staff of hospitals in the south of Iran (Fars, Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad, Chaharmahal-Bakhtiari and Khuzestan provinces) that provided services to COVID-19 patients. The sample size was 77 who were randomly selected in clusters sampling. The research tool was the COVID-19 Anxiety which was administered online in two stages of pre-test and post-test.

There is a significant difference between pre-test and post-test scores in the groups of voluntary exercise, voluntary religious practice, voluntary listening to music and casual exercise, which shows their effect on reducing COVID-19 anxiety in the medical staff. There is no significant difference between the pre-test and post-test scores of the control group, the casual group performing religious practices and the casual group listening to music. The results of ANOVA and LSD test showed that the voluntary group performing religious practice has the greatest effect on reducing COVID-19 anxiety.  

 Exercise and physical activity due to the predominance of its physical and physiological aspects, whether it is the will of the medical staff or not according to their desire, reduces anxiety in them. However, practicing religious beliefs and listening to music, due to the predominance of its spiritual dimension, reduces the anxiety of the medical staff only when it is based on one's desires.