FEAR OF COVID-19 AMONG MEDICAL STUDENTS AND ASSOCIATED FACTORS
FEAR OF COVID-19 AMONG MEDICAL STUDENTS AND ASSOCIATED FACTORS
Aims: To determine the level of COVID-19 fear among Turkish medical students, and show the relationship the types of education (online, hybrid, face to face), age, gender, grade, and level of fear. Methods: The study was conducted with 536 medical students from 30 different universities in Turkey. The questionnaire comprised 1 open-ended and 6 multiple choice questions for assessment of the demographic structure, in addition to 7 Likert-type questions within the 'Fear of COVID-19 Scale'. Results: Participants comprised 352 (65.7%) female and 184 (34.3%) male students, with a mean age of 20.04 ± 2.59 years and they showed significantly different Fear of COVID-19 Scale scores with regard to gender. The past or current presence of COVID-19 was determined as another variable that created a significant difference in the Fear of COVID-19 Scale scores. However, no relation between the past or current presence of COVID-19 in a family member and the Fear of COVID-19 Scale scores were found. Conclusion: In this study, it is demonstrated that fear of COVID-19 is higher among females and non-infected medical students compared to males and infected ones, respectively. These results can be used in assessing the fear level of COVID-19 among med- ical students concerning their gender their gender and infection history.
___
- 1. Nguyen HT, Do BN, Pham KM et al. Fear of COVID-19 scale-associations of its scores with health literacy and health-related behaviors among medical students. Int J Environ Res Public Health 2020;17(11):4164.
- 2. TzurBitan D, Grossman-Giron A, Bloch Y et al. Fear of COVID-19 scale: Psycho- metric characteristics, reliability and validity in the Israeli population. Psychiatry Res 2020; 289:113100.
- 3. World Health Organization (WHO). COVID-19 weekly epidemiological update. WHO: Geneva, Switzerland, 2020. Available from: URL: https://www.who.int/publications/m/item/weekly-epidemiological-update---22-december-2020.
- 4. Du Z, Xu X, Wang L et al. Effects of proactive social distancing on COVID-19 outbreaks in 58 cities, China. Emerg Infect Dis 2020;26(9):2267-9.
- 5. Demirbilek Y, Pehlivanturk G, Ozguler ZO et al. COVID-19 out-break control, example of ministry of health of Turkey. Turk J Med Sci 2020;50:489-94.
- 6. Mei SL, Yu JX, He BW et al. Psychological investigation of university students in a university in Jilin province. Med Soc 2011;24(05):84-6.
- 7. Li WW, Yu H, Miller DJ et al. Novelty seeking and mental health in Chinese uni- versity students before, during, and after the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown: A longitudinal study. Front Psychol 2020;11:600739.
- 8. Cao W, Fang Z, Hou G et al. The psychological impact of the COVID-19 epidemic on college students in China. Psychiatry Res 2020;287:112934.
- 9. Ahorsu DK, Lin CY, Imani V et al. The fear of COVID-19 Scale: Development and initial validation. Int J Ment Health Addict 2020;1-9.
- 10. Ladikli N, Bahadir E, Yumusak FN et al. The reliability and validity of Turkish version of coronavirus anxiety scale. Int J Soc Sci Res 2020;3(2):71-80.
- 11. Turkish Ministry of Health. COVID-19 daily and weekly epidemiological up- dates: Ankara, Turkey, 2020. Available from: URL: https://covid19.saglik.gov.tr/ TR-68443/covid-19-durum-raporu.html.
- 12. Haktanir A, Seki T, Dilmaç B. Adaptation and evaluation of Turkish version of the fear of COVID-19 scale. Death Studies 2020. Available from: URL: https://doi.org /10.1080/07481187.2020.1773026.
- 13. American Psychiatric Association. Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders 5th ed. Washington DC: American Psychiatric Association; 2013.p.189
- 14. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Older adults and COVID-19: Atlanta, Georgia, USA, 2020. Available from: URL: https://www.cdc.gov/corona-
virus/2019-ncov/need-extra-precautions/older-adults.html.
- 15. Martinez-Lorca M, Martinez-Lorca A, Criado-Alvarez JJ et al. The fear of COVID-19 scale: Validation in Spanish university students. Psychiatry Res 2020;293:113350.