Psychological, Sociodemographic, and Lifestyle Correlates of Anxiety in Romanian Medical and Nursing Students: A Cross-Sectional Study

Introduction: Anxiety is highly prevalent among health-sciences students, yet the relative strength of its sociodemographic, social-contextual, and psychological correlates is rarely examined within a single sample. This cross-sectional study examined the associations of these domains with anxiety in Romanian medical and nursing students within an integrated biopsychosocial framework. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional online survey was conducted with 483 first- to third-year Medicine and Nursing students at the “Dunărea de Jos” University of Galați. Anxiety was measured with the HADS-A. Predictors included sociodemographics, lifestyle variables, the Big Five, Rosenberg Self-Esteem, WHO-5 Wellbeing, and a procrastination scale. Missing data were addressed via multiple imputation. Analyses included pooled correlations, group comparisons, principal component analysis with Promax rotation, hierarchical regression, bootstrapped mediation, and logistic regression. Results: Among students with observed scores, 40.8% screened positive for elevated anxiety (HADS-A ≥ 8; 43.0% after imputation). Sociodemographic and lifestyle variables showed small associations that were not statistically significant after adjustment. A principal component combining wellbeing, self-esteem, and conscientiousness with low procrastination and neuroticism showed the strongest association with anxiety across all models. In an exploratory analysis, the procrastination–anxiety association was largely accounted for by wellbeing. Discussion: Within the variables measured, psychological characteristics were more strongly associated with anxiety than sociodemographic or lifestyle factors. Conclusions: Self-regulation and wellbeing merit attention as potential targets for future longitudinal and intervention research in health-sciences students.