Abstract
Background: The emergence of COVID-19 and its pandemic nature have increased fears and anxieties that have led to stigmatization worldwide. This fear and anxiety are directly related to the rate of transmission of the disease, its invisible presence in the environment, its spread, morbidity, and mortality. The aim of this study is to develop a data collection tool (a scale) that will evaluate perceived risk and anxiety of people living in Turkey regarding COVID-19, to propose a research model to describe the relationship between perception of risk and anxiety, and to form hypotheses.Methods: The number of participants from each province of Turkey was determined by considering the number of COVID-19 positive cases in the provinces and their populations. The study was conducted between April 2020 with the participation of 661 individuals through a link created on the internet.Results: The fit of the proposed model and the test of hypotheses were performed by using structural equation modeling. As a result of the study, it was determined that one unit increase in perceived health risk related to COVID-19 would lead to a 0.47 unit increase in anxiety, and one unit increase in perceived economic risk and inability to socialize would cause an increase of 0.18 and 0.15 units in anxiety, respectively.Conclusions: As a result of the study, it was determined that the variable that most affects people's anxiety is perceived health risk. COVID-19 scale can be used as a valid and reliable scale. It should be applied in larger and different sample groups.
Highlights
The epidemic, which was detected in the city of Wuhan in China with pneumonia clusters in a Chinese citizen who had allegedly eaten bat meat and got sick in the early days of December 2019, started to be seen in Turkey in early March 2020
The aim of this study is to develop a data collection tool which will evaluate perceived risk and anxiety of people living in Turkey regarding COVID-19, to propose a research model to describe the relationship between perception of risk and anxiety, and to form hypotheses
Equations related to the structural model regarding the coefficients found significant as a result of SEM analysis A= 0.24X; D = 0.47 A + 0.21B + 0.16 Cwere calculated as Trust factor explains 11% of Perceived Risk, and perceived health risk, perceived economic risk and inability to socialize factors explain 35% of Anxiety regarding COVID-19 epidemic
Summary
The epidemic, which was detected in the city of Wuhan in China with pneumonia clusters in a Chinese citizen who had allegedly eaten bat meat and got sick in the early days of December 2019, started to be seen in Turkey in early March 2020. While the epidemic was taken under control in China after 3 months with intense isolation and quarantine measures taken, it started to be seen in increasing numbers in our country and in many countries, jumped to Italy, Spain and the USA, and infected a large number of people and caused deaths. The emergence of COVID-19 and its pandemic nature have increased fears and anxieties that have led to stigmatization worldwide This fear and anxiety are directly related to the rate of transmission of the disease, its invisible presence in the environment, its spread, morbidity and mortality. The aim of this study is to develop a data collection tool (a scale) which will evaluate perceived risk and anxiety of people living in Turkey regarding COVID-19, to propose a research model to describe the relationship between perception of risk and anxiety, and to form hypotheses. It should be applied in larger and different sample groups
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