Fear of COVID-19 and its impact on quality of life during the lockdown situation among the teaching faculty of a health university in India

Abstract

Background: With the COVID-19 pandemic, the lockdown situation, work from home and teaching through the online platform is completely a 'new normal' in the present time. It is probably a state of mental turmoil of fear, novelty and anxiety among the faculty. This state is likely to affect teaching performance, learning and also have implications for the health of the faculty. Objectives: To assess the fear of COVID-19 and its impact on the quality of life during the Lockdown situation among the teaching faculty of a Health University and also study the gender differences if any. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted among the teaching faculty of a Health University during April 28 through to May 8, 2020. Randomly selected 270 faculty were sent Google link of the assessment tool using the University e-mail network. They had to fill the questionnaire based on their experience of the past 1 month. Assessment tools used were fear scale of COVID-19 and adapted with permission World Health Organization quality of life (QOL)-BREF QoL. Results: Out of the 270 participants, only 198 teaching faculty participated in the survey (response rate = 73.33%). The overall mean fear score was 18.69 ± 5.57 and the overall QoL mean score was 46.29 ± 4.02. There was a gender-wise statistically significant difference observed in the fear score (t = 2.34, P = 0.02), reporting more fear in the females (19.45 ± 5.81) as compared to the males (17.57 ± 5.01). There was a negative correlation between QoL scores and Fear score r = -0.24 (P = 0.000). Conclusions: There is certainly a fear about COVID-19, but it has not impacted the quality of life.