Anxiety Levels of Healthcare Professionals’ Relatives During COVID-19 Pandemic: A Longitudinal Study

Abstract

Aim: Health workers are the most important risk groups in the last century outbreaks. This situation creates anxiety in the relatives of healthcare workers as well as in healthcare workers. In this study, it was aimed to evaluate the anxiety levels of the relatives of healthcare workers during the COVID-19 epidemic. Methods: The study was designed as a longitudinal study in quantitative research design. In the study, data were collected regularly every day for 20 days between 20.03.2020-08.04.2020, when the coronavirus pandemic continued, and these data were associated with the data of the Ministry of Health. Results: One thousand one hundres and eighty participants' opinions were collected for the study. In the study process, it was observed that the anxiety level at 20.03.2020 was 8.25±5.36 and it increased to 17.21±17.07 on 08.04.2020. The relationship between the anxiety level of the participants and the total number of cases the total number of deaths were weak. There was a moderate correlation between the number of deaths per day and the number of patients recovering per day. In the study, it was shown that there is a moderate correlation between the anxiety levels and the level of knowledge of the opinion makers. In this upward trend, it has been observed that there are 3 breaking points: 23-24.03.2020, 28-29.03.2020 and 05-06.04.2020. Conclusion: In our study described the first cases of anxiety in the vicinity of 20 health workers in Turkey after the first day (twenty) were found to correlate with increased number of deaths in days. It was observed that anxiety level correlated weakly with the total number of cases / deaths, but moderately with the number of daily deaths / recovered patients in the relatives of the health studies. This situation was interpreted as that although the anxiety of healthcare workers was affected by the process, it was more affected by daily changes. Relatives as well as healthcare professionals also experienced a manageable anxiety during the COVID-19 outbreak. We believe that information and rehabilitation programs should be developed for the relatives of healthcare professionals in order to maintain the resilience / resiliency of healthcare professionals. Keywords: anxiety, coronavirus, pandemics, Family Medicine