The effect of the COVID‐19 pandemic on community mental health: A psychometric and prevalence study in Turkey

Abstract

Background: COVID-19, which is characterised by life-threatening symptoms, difficulty in breathing, and pneumonia symptoms and requires global emergency intervention, may cause psychological problems such as phobia, fear and anxiety. This study aims to examine the psychometric properties of the Fear of COVID-19 Scale in Turkish people and to determine the level of fear of COVID-19 among Turkish people. Methods:The research was carried out between March and April 2020. A Personal Information Form and the FCV-19S were used to collect the research data. In the validity and reliability stage, 84 people were contacted randomly for data collection. After the validity and reliability analyses of the scale, a total of 431 Turkish people volunteered to participate in the study and answered the questions in the online questionnaire form using a convenience and snowball sampling method.Confirmatory factor analysis, item-total correlation and Cronbach's alpha coefficient were calculated for psychometric evaluation. Bivariate analysis was applied to determine the level of fear of COVID-19.Results: Cronbach's alpha coefficient was 0.89, which is stated to have high reliability. FCV-19S scores of participants were determined to be 21.47 ± 6.28. FCV-19S scores of females were determined as 20.48 ± 6.33 and FCV-19S scores of males were determined as 19.78 ± 7.34 according to the bivariate analysis (p < .05). Age, marital status, having children and living alone or with others, tobacco use and anxiety about going to the hospital during the pandemic did not affect on fear of COVID-19 (p > .05). Particularly being female, the presence of chronic disease requiring long-term medication and rarely taking protective measures recommended by the Ministry of Health and having a chronic disease had a significant effect on higher levels of fear of COVID-19 (p < .05). Conclusion:The FCV-19S is a valid and reliable tool for determining the fear of COVID-19. It was found that the fear level of COVID-19 infection was high in Turkish people.

An investigation of fear of COVID-19 status in university student athletes from different sports associated with contact

“…The results of this study are similar to the studies revealing that the fear of COVID-19 is higher in women [52][53][54]. Studies conducted on Turkish participants revealed that both in healthy normal population and athlete population, women had greater fear and anxiety for COVID-19 scales than men [38,43,[55][56][57][58]. The fact that women are more affected by psychological distress such as depression, anxiety, adjustment disorder, perceived stress, post-traumatic stress disorder and insomnia caused by COVID-19 can be explained by the fact that women are more psychologically vulnerable [59][60][61].…”

“…Data collection tools COVID-19 Fear Scale (FCV-19S), has been developed and verified by Ahorsu et al [20]. It has been demonstrated in different studies that the FCV-19S scale is a reliable and valid measurement tool in determining the fear of catching COVID-19 [43][44][45]. And in this research, the COVID-19 Fear scale, which was adapted into Turkish by Satici et al [44] was used.…”

Online shopping adoption during COVID-19 and social isolation: Extending the UTAUT model with herd behavior

“…Second, the research confirmed the existence of other important factors that influence the intention to use online shopping among older adults. Due to reduced social contact between individuals during the COVID-19 pandemic resulting from lockdown restrictions or the fear of COVID-19 ( Korukcu et al, 2021 ; Soofi et al, 2020 ), we examined the influence of herd behavior on the intention to use online shopping. Studies have examined the influence of herd behavior on technology adoption ( Handarkho and Harjoseputro, 2019 ; Y.…”

“…Social contacts between people have diminished during the COVID-19 pandemic either through lockdown restrictions or as a result of the fear of the virus ( Korukcu et al, 2021 ; Soofi et al, 2020 ). Therefore, in the COVID-19 situation, the subjective norm of potential users of new technologies ( Venkatesh et al, 2003 ) is affected by diminishing the element of social influence by not having the same amount of information available from their close social circles when deciding on whether to adopt a certain technology.…”

Accepting Restrictions and Compliance With Recommended Preventive Behaviors for COVID-19: A Discussion Based on the Key Approaches and Current Research on Fear Appeals

“…Also, recent studies have revealed certain gender-based differences in the fear experienced in relation to the COVID-19 pandemic. Females have significantly reported higher levels of fear of COVID-19 ( Humer et al, 2020 ; Korukcu et al, 2020 ; Liu et al, 2020 ; Qiu et al, 2020 ; Reznik et al, 2020 ; Trnka and Lorencova, 2020 ; Tzur Bitan et al, 2020 ; Koçak et al, 2021 ; Pak et al, 2021 ), depression, anxiety, and stress ( Mazza et al, 2020 ) than males.…”