An investigation of depression, anxiety, and stress and its relating factors during COVID-19 pandemic in Iran

<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title><jats:sec> <jats:title>Background</jats:title> <jats:p>The COVID-19 (SARS-CoV-2) is an emerging epidemic caused by the new Coronavirus. It has affected more than 200 countries, infected 5,939,234 people, and killed 367,255 in the world until 1 June 2020. While the disease epidemic could affect population mental health, this study aimed to investigate stress, anxiety, and depression during the Corona pandemic in Iran.</jats:p> </jats:sec><jats:sec> <jats:title>Methods</jats:title> <jats:p>An online survey was designed using the depression, anxiety, and stress scale (DASS-21) questionnaire. The questionnaire was available for all Iranian population from 18 to 28 April 2020. Finally, 1498 participants filled the questionnaire using snowball sampling. Data were analyzed using multivariate regression models.</jats:p> </jats:sec><jats:sec> <jats:title>Results</jats:title> <jats:p>Findings showed that most participants had experienced a normal level of stress (36.6%), anxiety (57.9%) and depression (47.9%). About 2.5% of respondents report an extremely severe level of stress. This amount of anxiety and depression was 6.3 and 7.9%, respectively. Regression model showed being female (CI: − 1.299; − 0.248), living with a high risk family member (CI: 0.325; 1.400), health status (CI: − 0.857; − 0.595), economic status (CI: − 0.396; − 0.141), social capital (CI: − 0.475; − 0.244), risk of disease (CI: 0.081; 0.729), and following COVID-19 news (CI: 0.111; 0.551) have a relation with stress level. Education level (CI: − 0.252; − 0.017), living with a high risk family member (CI: 0.0301; 1.160), health status (CI: − 0.682; − 0.471), social capital (CI: − 0.236; − 0.048), risk of disease (CI: 0.154; 0.674), and following COVID-19 news (CI: 0.046; 0.401) have a relation with anxiety score. Depression score was in relation with education level (CI: − 0.263; − 0.022), having a high-risk family member (CI: 0.292; 1.155), health status (CI: − 0.687; − 0.476), social capital (CI: − 0.235; − 0.048), risk of disease (CI: 0.144; 0.667), and following Covid-19 news (CI: 0.053; 0.408).</jats:p> </jats:sec><jats:sec> <jats:title>Conclusions</jats:title> <jats:p>Most of the factors related to depression, anxiety, and stress are related to COVID-19, such as having a vulnerable person in the family, risk of disease, and following COVID-19 news. The findings suggest the factors that should be taken into consideration for improving population mental health during pandemics.</jats:p> </jats:sec>