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Effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Turkish Ophthalmologists

OBJECTIVES: To assess the effects of the coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic on Turkish ophthalmologists. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In this survey study, an online questionnaire consisting of 40 questions was directed to actively working ophthalmologists. The questions asked about demographic...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Kavadarlı, Işılay, Mutlu, Melek
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Galenos Publishing 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8109042/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33951897
http://dx.doi.org/10.4274/tjo.galenos.2020.52563
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author Kavadarlı, Işılay
Mutlu, Melek
author_facet Kavadarlı, Işılay
Mutlu, Melek
author_sort Kavadarlı, Işılay
collection PubMed
description OBJECTIVES: To assess the effects of the coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic on Turkish ophthalmologists. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In this survey study, an online questionnaire consisting of 40 questions was directed to actively working ophthalmologists. The questions asked about demographic characteristics, working conditions and schedule, follow-up of ophthalmology patients, and levels of knowledge and anxiety about the pandemic. RESULTS: This study included 161 ophthalmologists (78 women and 83 men). They were predominantly consultant ophthalmologists (71%), with 128 living in metropolitan areas. More than half (54.4%) reported decreased weekly working hours, 52.5% were attending routine outpatient clinics, 52.8% were working in COVID-19-related units, 67.1% were performing only emergency operations, and 52% reported disrupted follow-up of chronic eye patients. Sixty-four percent thought that ophthalmologists were in the high-risk group, and nearly all participants used masks while working (99%). Additionally, 91% expressed high anxiety regarding the pandemic, most commonly due to the risk of transmitting the disease to family (83%), and 12.5% considered their level of knowledge about the pandemic to be insufficient. Forty-six percent of the participants thought that daily life conditions would normalize in 2 to 5 months. CONCLUSION: Close proximity during patient examination causes ophthalmologists concern about their risk. The increasing number of COVID-19 cases resulted in a proportional decrease in the number of patients and surgeries in ophthalmology clinics in our country. As a result, ophthalmologists are unwillingly appointed to high-risk units. The COVID-19 pandemic has caused a substantial increase in anxiety levels among Turkish ophthalmologists.
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spelling pubmed-81090422021-05-17 Effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Turkish Ophthalmologists Kavadarlı, Işılay Mutlu, Melek Turk J Ophthalmol Original Article OBJECTIVES: To assess the effects of the coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic on Turkish ophthalmologists. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In this survey study, an online questionnaire consisting of 40 questions was directed to actively working ophthalmologists. The questions asked about demographic characteristics, working conditions and schedule, follow-up of ophthalmology patients, and levels of knowledge and anxiety about the pandemic. RESULTS: This study included 161 ophthalmologists (78 women and 83 men). They were predominantly consultant ophthalmologists (71%), with 128 living in metropolitan areas. More than half (54.4%) reported decreased weekly working hours, 52.5% were attending routine outpatient clinics, 52.8% were working in COVID-19-related units, 67.1% were performing only emergency operations, and 52% reported disrupted follow-up of chronic eye patients. Sixty-four percent thought that ophthalmologists were in the high-risk group, and nearly all participants used masks while working (99%). Additionally, 91% expressed high anxiety regarding the pandemic, most commonly due to the risk of transmitting the disease to family (83%), and 12.5% considered their level of knowledge about the pandemic to be insufficient. Forty-six percent of the participants thought that daily life conditions would normalize in 2 to 5 months. CONCLUSION: Close proximity during patient examination causes ophthalmologists concern about their risk. The increasing number of COVID-19 cases resulted in a proportional decrease in the number of patients and surgeries in ophthalmology clinics in our country. As a result, ophthalmologists are unwillingly appointed to high-risk units. The COVID-19 pandemic has caused a substantial increase in anxiety levels among Turkish ophthalmologists. Galenos Publishing 2021-04 2021-04-29 /pmc/articles/PMC8109042/ /pubmed/33951897 http://dx.doi.org/10.4274/tjo.galenos.2020.52563 Text en © Copyright 2021 by Turkish Ophthalmological Association | Turkish Journal of Ophthalmology, published by Galenos Publishing House. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Original Article
Kavadarlı, Işılay
Mutlu, Melek
Effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Turkish Ophthalmologists
title Effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Turkish Ophthalmologists
title_full Effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Turkish Ophthalmologists
title_fullStr Effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Turkish Ophthalmologists
title_full_unstemmed Effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Turkish Ophthalmologists
title_short Effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Turkish Ophthalmologists
title_sort effects of the covid-19 pandemic on turkish ophthalmologists
topic Original Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8109042/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33951897
http://dx.doi.org/10.4274/tjo.galenos.2020.52563
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