COVID-19: The Level of Knowledge, Anxiety and Symptom Presentation

OBJECTIVE: This study aims to establish whether there is a relationship between the level of knowledge about COVID-19, anxiety scores, and pseudo increases in the symptoms of the patients or not. METHODS: The Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI) and Republic of Turkey Ministry of Health General Directorate’s COVID-19 (SARS-CoV-2 infection) General Information, Epidemiology, and Diagnosis Guide were reviewed to generate the questionnaire’s content. The data were obtained through a face-to-face interview method. To test their level of knowledge about COVID-19, they were asked multiple-choice questions that have one or more possible right answers. The Statistical Package for Social Sciences was used for statistical analysis. The results were presented as mean and standard deviations for numerical variables and as frequency and percentage for categorical data. RESULTS: A total of 402 patients were included in this questionnaire-based study. The average age of the patients was 44.67 ± 4.95 years, and 204 (50.7%) of them were female. The average anxiety score according to the BAI was 7.98 ± 1.29 which classifies as mild anxiety. The overall responses for the knowledge level on COVID-19 section are presented in Table 2. The average score was 9.2 ± 2.7 points out of a possible 14. CONCLUSION: The study population showed a moderate level of knowledge, and on average, the patients were not very anxious about the outbreak. The psychosomatic effects of the anxiety caused by the pandemic should be kept in mind by the clinicians since the patients might require a psychiatric consultation in the treatment process.