Anxiety Status and Associated Factors of Health Personnel Working in a Tertiary Hospital in Turkey in the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

Aim: This research was conducted to evaluate the anxiety status and related factors of tertiary hospital personnel working in a densely populated area of ​​Turkey during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: A total of 555 participants were included in this cross-sectional, prospective study. A socio-demographic data form was created and the Beck Anxiety Scale was applied to participants for evaluating anxiety status. Results: The rate of men 64.86% (n=360) and women 35.14% (n=195). The distribution of anxiety scores was in the range of 8.39±9.16. 58.2% of them (n=323) had low, 41.8% (n=232) had high anxiety scores. Factors like age, gender, marital status, working status in areas where treatment/care is provided to suspected/positive patients with COVID-19, and fear of carrying infection from work to home are found to be statistically significantly related to anxiety. Conclusion: High anxiety scores were measured in almost half of the participants. Taking measures to improve risk factors can reduce the damaging effects of the challenging working conditions due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic on hospital personnel. Keywords: anxiety, COVID-19, health, health personnel, pandemics