An Investigation of the COVID-19-Related Anxiety Levels of Individuals According to Some Demographic Variables

Pandemics such as COVID-19 create heightened fear and anxiety, causing deterioration in the behaviours, social and psychological well-being of people. It can be thought that the anxiety levels of healthcare workers will increase more because they have a higher risk of contamination, work under COVID-19 isolation-measures and heavy workload. The aim of this study is to determine the COVID-19-related anxiety levels of individuals, the ways of coping with, the demographic factors affecting anxiety, and whether the anxiety level of healthcare workers is different from others. This study was carried out with data obtained from 1017 participants via google forms between May-July 2020. In the collection of data, the 12-item COVID-19-related anxiety scale, which was developed by researcher and analysed for validity and reliability; 13 items for ways of coping; some demographic questions were used. The COVID-19-related anxiety scale consisted of three dimensions: “cognitive”, “physiological and emotional”, “behavioural”, which explained 71% of the variance. The Cronbach alpha of scale was 0.85. The COVID-19-related anxiety levels of participants were slightly above the moderate level (2.83±0.72). The anxiety levels of healthcare workers were not different from others. There was a difference in anxiety levels according to demographic characteristics of participants, such as age, gender, living in Turkey or abroad, working status/type, and smoking addiction. Cognitive coping, social support, distraction, relaxation techniques were identified as ways of coping with anxiety. COVID-19 pandemic created anxiety in people. More studies need to understand the long-term effects of the pandemic.