The impact of impulsivity and school attendance on COVID-19 spread: A web-based cross-sectional questionnaire.

Some personal and social decisions can be influential in the spread of COVID-19. There are no studies examining school attendance, impulsivity, COVID-19 phobia, and psychological resilience together while the effect of some individual and social measures on COVID-19 has been frequently investigated. In this study 360 participants were evaluated through an online questionnaire method during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic. Sociodemographic data form prepared by the researchers, COVID-19 Phobia Scale, Barratt Impulsivity Scale, and Brief Resilience Scale were used in the study. In all, 20.6% (n = 74) of participants had previously experienced COVID-19. The rate of individuals who experienced the death of any of their relatives due to COVID-19 was 17.8%. Only 65.8% of respondents fully complied with government-implemented measures for the outbreak. School attendance (OR = 1.983, p = .033) and impulsivity (OR = 1.115, p < .001) were found to be positively correlated with COVID-19. The presence of a significantly higher psychiatric disease admission history in patients with COVID-19 in binary comparisons did not reach the level of significance in regression analysis. Our results suggest that high school attendance and impulsivity scores are positively correlated with COVID-19 in young people. Government strategies related to schools need to be carefully reviewed for this reason.

How did the psychological impact of COVID-19 change healthcare workers in times of fighting the pandemic?

BACKGROUND: This study is the second leg of a two-leg project. In the first leg, the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on healthcare workers (HCWs) was investigated in the period between the first case in Turkey and the arrival of the first case in the hospital. OBJECTIVE: In this second leg, three months after the first evaluation, we aimed to investigate whether psychological effects of COVID-19 such as stress, anxiety, depression, and sleep quality have been changed on HCWs. METHODS: This was a 3-month observational study. 169 hospital staff who participated in the first leg of the study were reached and asked to participate in the second leg evaluation in Gaziantep University Medical Faculty Hospital.110 HCWs accepted to participate. Impact of Event Scale (EIS-R), Depression Anxiety Stress Scale (DASS-21), and Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) were used to assess in both two legs. Paired Sample T-test was used for comparison of normally distributed variables. Wilcoxon test was used for the comparison of abnormally distributed variables. SPSS 22.0 software was used in the analysis of variables. RESULTS: Of the HCWs with an average age of 33.9±6.6 years, 59% (65) were males. There was no significant difference between the two legs in terms of IES-R, DASS-21, and PSQI scales. CONCLUSION: This study suggests that the psychological effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on HCWs started with the pandemic, before the arrival of the first case in the hospital. Also, these psychological effects continued similarly without significant change after the initiation of direct contact with COVID-19 patients and even after the increase in COVID-19 patients in a hospital which in they work.

The impact of impulsivity and school attendance on COVID‐19 spread: A web‐based cross‐sectional questionnaire

Some personal and social decisions can be influential in the spread of COVID‐19. There are no studies examining school attendance, impulsivity, COVID‐19 phobia, and psychological resilience together while the effect of some individual and social measures on COVID‐19 has been frequently investigated. In this study 360 participants were evaluated through an online questionnaire method during the peak of the COVID‐19 pandemic. Sociodemographic data form prepared by the researchers, COVID‐19 Phobia Scale, Barratt Impulsivity Scale, and Brief Resilience Scale were used in the study. In all, 20.6% (n = 74) of participants had previously experienced COVID‐19. The rate of individuals who experienced the death of any of their relatives due to COVID‐19 was 17.8%. Only 65.8% of respondents fully complied with government‐implemented measures for the outbreak. School attendance (OR = 1.983, p = .033) and impulsivity (OR = 1.115, p < .001) were found to be positively correlated with COVID‐19. The presence of a significantly higher psychiatric disease admission history in patients with COVID‐19 in binary comparisons did not reach the level of significance in regression analysis. Our results suggest that high school attendance and impulsivity scores are positively correlated with COVID‐19 in young people. Government strategies related to schools need to be carefully reviewed for this reason. Highlights It is the first study to evaluate impulsivity, COVID‐19 phobia, and psychological resilience together in young people with and without COVID‐19. High school attendance and impulsivity scores showed a positive correlation with COVID‐19 in young people. The presence of a significantly higher psychiatric disease admission history in patients with COVID‐19 infection did not show significance in regression analysis.

Psychological impact of COVID-19 outbreak on health workers in a university hospital in Turkey.

We investigated the psychological impact of the COVID-19 outbreak in terms of stress, anxiety, depression, sleep quality and affecting factors on healthcare workers (HWs) without secondary trauma thus far in the period between the first cases in Turkey and the arrival of the first case in ahospital. This descriptive cross-sectional study included 169 HWs. We used Impact of Event Scale (IES-R), Depression Anxiety Stress Scale and Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) for assessment. The mean age of HWs was 33.9±6.9 years and 56.2% were males. Of the HWs; 20.7% were nurses, 33.7% doctors and 45.6% staff members. IES-R classified the HWs as follows: 15.4% of them were affected mildly, 4.7% moderately and 9.5% of them were affected severely. 42.6% of HWs had apoor sleep quality. This study shows that how HWs were affected when the outbreak had not yet reached the hospital in which they work. In total, 29.6% of the HWs were psychologically affected by mild to severe levels from the outbreak in this period. The most prevalent psychological impact was poor sleep quality. Psychological impact on HWs may have begun before the outbreak reached the hospitals; therefore, necessary measures should be taken as early as possible.