Knowledge and Anxiety among Bank Clerks during the COVID-19 Pandemic Before and After Educational Intervention via Mobile Health Technology

Abstract

Objective: Bank clerks were among the high risk groups in experiencing physiologic and psychological symptoms during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) crisis. This present study aims to investigate the changes in the knowledge and anxiety of bank clerks during the COVID-19 pandemic, before and after the educational intervention via mobile health technology in the south of Fars province, Iran in 2020. Material and Methods: This present study is a quasi-experimental work with a pretest-posttest design. The participants were recruited according to the lists provided by the bank authorities, and then assigned, through non-random sampling, into a control group from three banks (45 subjects) and 48 subjects from three other banks into intervention group. The intervention group received education via mobile phones, and the control group received the routine information broadcasted by social media. Data were collected using a demographics questionnaire, a researcher-made COVID-19 knowledge questionnaire, and Spielberger’s Anxiety Inventory at baseline (before) and follow-up (two weeks after intervention). The collected data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and inferential statistics in Statistical Package for the Social Science version 23. Results: There were no drop-outs of participants during the study phase. The results showed that the mean knowledge score of the participants were improved in the both control and intervention groups, significantly (p-value<0.001), and there were significant differences between the two groups regarding the knowledge scores in pretest and posttest (p-value<0.001 and p-value=0.001, respectively). The results of the t-test also showed that the mean scores of state and trait anxiety levels were increased in the control group (p-value<0.001 and p-value=0.932, respectively), while decreased significantly in the intervention group (p-value<0.001). However, there were significant differences between the two groups regarding the state and trait anxiety levels in pretest and posttest (p-value<0.001). Conclusion: The results show that e-education via mobile phones can help to increase the knowledge, and decrease the anxiety of bank clerks during the COVID-19 pandemic. Accordingly, it is suggested that this method of education be employed to raise the COVID-19 awareness of the employees in other organizations. Indeed, limitations; such as, low sample size and long-term outcomes should be considered in future studies.