Prevalence and predictors of psychological response during immediate
covid-19 pandemia
Abstract
Purpose: COVID-19 pandemic has created a serious psychological impact
worldwide since it has been declared. This study aims to investigate the
level of psychological impacts of COVID-19 pandemic on Turkish
population and to determine related factors. Methods: The study was
carried out by using an online questionnaire using the virtual snowball
sampling method. The sociodemographic data were collected on the
following subjects: Participants’ experience on any signs of infection
within the last month, the history of COVID-19
contact-treatment-quarantine, level of compliance with precautionary
measures, the sources of information and level of knowledge about the
pandemic process and their belief levels on the knowledge they acquire.
Besides, questions that take place in the depression, anxiety, stress
scale (DASS-21), and impact of events scale (IESR) were asked. Results:
Of the 3549 participants, anxiety was found in 15.8%, depression in
22.6%, stress in 12.9%, and psychological trauma in 20.29%. Female
gender, young age, higher education level, being single, high monthly
income, presence of psychiatric illness, a high number of people living
together, having any signs of infection, and contact history with
COVID-19 infected person or contaminated object are identified as risk
factors that may increase psychological impact. Compliance with the
rules was found to reduce the risk of psychological response.
Conclusions: During the pandemic, reducing the spread of the virus and
knowing the risk factors in protecting the mental health of individuals
will be guided in determining the measures to be followed and the
policies to be followed.