ABSTRACT
Objective: This study was designed to explore the potential association between the severity of the impact of the coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic on perceptions and attitudes among medical interns. Material(s) and Method(s): The study was carried out as qualitative key informant semi-structured interviews, and were enrolled from September-October 2020 using a convenience sampling was used to recruit nine medical interns at King Faisal University College of Medicine, Saudi Arabia. Data were analyzed qualitatively using framework analysis. Semi-structured interviews were performed in Mi-crosoft Teams (online) for an average of 21 minutes, and the English language was utilized. A thematic analysis was done to identify the main concerns of the interns about education loss. Result(s): Nine participants (4 male medical interns and 5 female interns) were interviewed. The interview time averaged 18.4 minutes (range 17-21 minutes) and the mean age of the sample was 24 (standard deviation 0.707) years. Interns were more likely to be anxious, panic-ridden, horrified, depressed, stressful and disorganised due to the influence of the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition, the COVID-19 pandemic has had an impact on interns' organization of hospital rotation schedules. Furthermore, there is disagree-ment on the impact of the COVID-19 epidemic on preparation for the Medical Licensing Exams. Conclusion(s): It should be ensured that the pandemic does not affect any more interns on medical rotations, by rais-ing awareness through a bundle of educational courses.Copyright © 2023 by Turkiye Klinikleri.
ABSTRACT
Background. Recently, researchers have shown increased interest in the psychological effect of the pandemic on healthcare workers, as well as on the general population. Objectives. We aimed to investigate the incidence of adverse psychological effects, such as anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder, experienced by medical staff and healthcare professionals during the COVID-19 pandemic. Material and methods. This is a cross-sectional survey, in which participants were invited to take part in the study by completing a questionnaire. The survey gathered information on demographic data, symptoms of the Depression, Anxiety, Stress Scales (DASS-21) and the Impact of Events Scale-Revised (IES-R) tool. Results. The total and subscale of DAS-21 showed that 54.8% of all participants showed signs of depression, (60.1%) anxiety and (59.4%) stress. The faculty member of medicine was substantially correlated with the DASS-21 subscale depression and anxiety. In addition, the stress subscale of the DASS-21 was substantially higher with a medical intern. Similarly, the findings obtained from the preliminary study of participants who encountered or were exposed to COVID-19 patients had significantly higher stress subscale ratings in the Depression, Anxiety, Stress Scales. In addition, the married participants were correlated with higher scores in the (IES-R) tool. Conclusions. More than half of the participants in this study encountered mild to extreme psychological effects during the pandemic. This investigation's findings indicate that working in the medical profession (medical staff members and medical interns) is associated with depression, anxiety and stress.
ABSTRACT
Background. The new coronavirus pandemic, which appeared at the end of the year 2019, was the greatest in recent decades, and it affected almost all countries and economies, causing a highly significant number of deaths. Objectives. This study aimed to evaluate patients’ knowledge and attitude when experiencing potential COVID-19 symptoms toward reporting their illness and following viral preventive precautions. Material and methods. A cross-sectional study conducted among the general population in Al-Ahsa, Eastern region, Saudi Arabia. A self-administered questionnaire distributed among the general population, divided into three parts: Socio-demographic characteristics, previous COVID-19 infection and attitude toward experiencing COVID-19 symptoms. A total of 504 responses collected in this study from December 15, 2020 to January 15, 2021. Results. We found that 31.7% were positive among the participants who did COVID-19 testing (48.8%). The level of knowledge showed that more than half (52.2%) were classified at a low knowledge level, while the rest were classified as good (47.8%). Regarding attitude, nearly two-thirds (64.1%) showed a negative attitude, while 35.9% showed a positive attitude. The workplace during the pandemic and family history of COVID-19 were the factors associated with both good knowledge and a positive attitude. Conclusions. The knowledge and attitude toward reporting potential COVID-19 symptoms were generally suboptimal. Male participants, holders of a university degree in the medical field, health practitioners or having a family member working in the medical field demonstrated better knowledge, while those who had a COVID-19 test and those with a family history of the disease positively influenced the attitude.
ABSTRACT
COVID-19 starts to spread between the countries since the beginning of 2020 and infects millions of people worldwide. The governments put a strict rule, including lockdown, to prevent the disease;many health consequences happened and got attention from clinicians and researchers. This study aim to assess the severity of anxiety symptoms developed in King Faisal University students by continuous stress and lockdown due to the pandemic (COVID-19). A cross-sectional study was done using the Arabic version of the Hamilton anxiety rating scale, which we apply online, targeting King Faisal University students;the total number of participants was 529. This study showed that 73.2 % of King Faisal University student have mild anxiety symptoms, 14.2 % reported to have mild to moderate anxiety symptoms, while 7.4 % of the students have moderate to severe anxiety symptoms, only a few (5.3%) of the students reported to have very severe anxiety symptoms. The severity of anxiety symptoms significantly related to age, marital status, being a medical college student and smoking. We can conclude that most participants have mild anxiety symptoms while the rest of the participants reported having more severe anxiety symptoms. Age, marital status, smoking and being a medical college student can affect the severity of anxiety symptoms among the population. It is highly recommended to start screening, education and prevention programs for psychiatric impacts among university students and the community as soon as possible since the COVID 19 pandemic is still going. © 2021 Teikyo University School of Medicine. All rights reserved.