EVALUATION OF THE SOCIAL PERCEPTION ABOUT CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC IN TURKEY BY USING DATA MINING

Abstract

Background/aim: The objective of this study was to examine the social perception about the Covid-19 outbreak, and to evaluate public’s knowledge level about the Covid-19, opinion and emotional condition. Materials and methods: An online questionnaire created by the researchers was applied for all communities living in Turkey, between 1-15 May 2020 date. Association rules analyses were performed using the descriptive analyses for the research data and the "Apriori Data Mining Analysis" method for the questions, which were anticipated to be associated with each other. Results: 3751 people participated in the study. It has been determined that there are differences in terms of the level of knowledge and perception of Covid-19 in terms of factors such as living in rural areas, low education level, socio-economic level. Although almost all of the society (96.1%) know that Covid-19 is a very contagious disease, they have different perspectives in terms of their risk of getting the disease. Social distance application is evaluated as very effective in preventing the spread of the disease by 90.2% of the society. Although it is known by a significant portion of the society (70.8%) which behaviors are appropriate or not in implementing social distance, the rate of those who do not know (29%) is relatively important. Conclusion: Informing the society about the precaution against Covid-19 and compliance with these measures and making attempts to ensure the necessary compliance are seen as a key point in preventing the spread of the disease. Making decisions covering all components of the society, increasing compliance with the proposed precautions and developing practices to ensure sustainability are gaining importance.