Senior lecturer in Department of Pulmonology, Universitas Sumatra Utara

Background: The number of COVID-19 cases in Indonesia has reached more than 1.5 million, of which 121,011 people are still in treatment. Stress and anxiety are the dominant psychological aspects of COVID-19 pandemic and have been shown to affect overall quality of life. Therefore, this research purpose to assess the level of anxiety in severe COVID-19 patients before and after undergoing upper arm exercises and breathing exercises. Methods : This study is a clinical trial using a two-group pretest-posttest quasi-experimental study design on 36 patients who diagnosed with confirmed COVID-19 severe severity who were treated in isolation room for 6 months period who met the inclusion and exclusion criteria. Then, conduct baseline examinations such as: vital signs, laboratories, and Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) in the emergency room for COVID-19 patients before undergoing physiotherapy. A comparison of the results of HADS measurements was made between before and after the intervention (upper arm exercises and breathing exercises). If the data were normally distributed, paired t-test was used (p<0.05). If the data is not normally distributed, Wilcoxon's test is used Results: The study sample was dominated by men with a total of 23 people (63.9%) compared to 13 women (36.1%). Conditions before exercise, found 18 people (50%) moderate cases, 17 people (47.2%) severe cases and 1 person (2.8%) mild cases. In the post-exercise condition, there were 15 people (41.7%) with moderate cases, 12 people (33.3%) severe cases and 9 people (25%) mild cases. Out Of 53 severe COVID-19 patients who performed upper arm exercises and breathing exercises, the average HADS measurement results before exercise was 14.27 + 2.02 and after exercise 12.19 + 3.20. It was found that mean difference before and after exercise was 2.0833 + 2.11. After t paired test was done, a significance p value was found = 0.000 (p<0.05). Conclusion : Anxiety level in severe COVID-19 patients significantly difference before and after undergoing upper arm exercises and breathing exercises.