The knowledge levels, sociodemographic characteristics and the reasons for application to the first stage during the COVID-19 pandemic patients who applied to a family medicine clinic in Istanbul

Abstract

It is to evaluate whether there is any change in the community's applications to primary care in the Covid-19 pandemic and to evaluate the level of knowledge of patients about Covid-19 in this important process. A total of 331 female and male volunteers between the ages of 18-80 who applied to a family medicine unit on the European side of Istanbul between September 2020 and November 2020 were included in the study. 30 questions in the questionnaire were filled by a single investigator after the patients were informed and their consent was obtained. This study, which we conducted in the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic, showed us that; The most important means of communication in making the pandemic known to the public are TV and social media (87.3%). Thanks to the full closure and other protective measures implemented in the early days of the pandemic, a controlled increase in the number of cases was observed, and the number of people who caught Covid-19 among the people who participated in our survey was quite low (3%) and most of these people were treated at home (62.5%). The epidemic process also affected hospital admissions of people, and it was seen that the number of people who did not apply to the hospital for more than 1 month was the majority (74.9%). One of the remarkable ones among the answers to the Covid-19 information questions; although there is no specific treatment for Covid-19 yet, 209 people (63.1%) say that there is a cure for Covid-19. We think that the preventive treatment (Hydroxychloroquine and Favipiravir) applied by the filiation teams, even if there is no specific treatment, is effective in these discourses. However, although the vaccine studies have not been concluded yet, 34 (10.3%) people stated that the vaccine was available.