2.2.2. Section II

This section included questions about attitudes towards COVID-19, the reaction of the population to COVID-19 patients, and how to deal with others.

#### 2.2.3. Section III. The State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI)

The State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) is a commonly used measure of trait and state anxiety [9,10]. The standardized Arabic version of the state anxiety scale was used in this study [11] and included 20 items for assessing trait anxiety and 20 items for assessing state anxiety. State anxiety items included "I am tense; I am worried" and "I feel calm; I feel secure". Trait anxiety items included "I worry too much over something that really doesn't matter" and "I am content; I am a steady person". We assessed the state anxiety in the present study. All items were rated on a 4-point scale (e.g., from "almost never" to "almost always") [12,13]. Higher scores indicate greater anxiety. Internal consistency coefficients for the scale ranged from 0.550 to 0.751, and the value of Cronbach's alpha coefficient was 0.892.
