Anxiety and Fear Caused by the COVID-19 Pandemic During the Intervention of Emergency Surgical Cases in Surgical Physicians in Türkiye

Abstract

Aim: We aimed to determine the anxiety and fear of surgical physicians regarding COVID-19, their fears in emergency surgical cases and their views on the precautions taken.Material and Methods: Anxiety and fear scales adapted to Turkish and a questionnaire with 20 questions prepared by ourselves were used. Online questionnaires were applied to 275 physicians using the Google forms application. Mann-Whitney U, Chi-square, Kruskal Wallis, linear and binary logistic regression tests were applied.Results: A significant difference was found in total anxiety and fear score between gender, additional personal protective equipment (PPE) use or not, COVID-19 effect in medical decisions or not and having total anxiety and total fear or not. Surgeons who thought they were infected with COVID-19 infection from the hospital had higher fear score means than those who did not. Surgeons with two children had higher anxiety scores In binary logistic regression, having female gender increased fear of COVID-19, using additional PPE increased COVID-19 anxiety and fear of COVID-19, having COVID-19 fear-anxiety increased fear of COVID-19. İn lineer regression the fear of COVID-19 explained the level of COVID-19 anxiety as much as 39% of the variance.Conclusion: Anxiety and fears may be more common in surgical branches. While hospitals are performing their duties, physicians and healthcare professionals should absolutely obey the rules and not show the slightest negligence.