Teachers’ Approaches to Strengthening their Immune Systems during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

Objective: Strengthening the immune system constitutes an important part of struggling with COVID-19. The aim of this study was to evaluate the approaches of the teachers to strengthen their immunity during COVID-19 pandemic in Turkey. 
 Method: This descriptive study was conducted by applying a questionnaire to teachers using social media between 15 June - 15 July 2020. 
 Results: The median age of all 500 participants was 37 (min: 22, max: 69) years and 76.8% were women. Of the teachers 47.4% stated that they gained weight during COVID-19 pandemic period. Fruit and vegetable consuming (52.8%), praying (36.2%) and sunbathing (26.0%) were the most common methods to strengthen immunity. Of the teachers, 45.2% (n:226) were using supplementary products. The most commonly used supplements are; Vitamin D (17%), vitamin C (14.2%) and multi-vitamin (10.8%). While there was no statistically significant difference between supplementary product usage and income levels (p = 0.839), there was a significant difference with allotting of money for their health (p = 0.001). Of the teachers, 46.2% were confident about their knowledge on immunity strengthening methods and 61.2% stated that they would like to be trained. 
 Conclusion: Teachers appear to care about their health and apply immunity strengthening methods, though nearly half gained weight during the COVID-19 pandemic. In-service training is essential for the teachers who would constitute good role-models for the society. Lifestyle changes and complementary therapies strengthening immunity may help to come over Covid-19 pandemic with less harm. More studies are needed to investigate the effects of complementary therapies on the immune system.