The impact of COVID-19 on healthcare workers’ anxiety levels

Abstract

Aim: This study aims to examine the effect of COVID-19 on the anxiety levels of healthcare employees. Methods: This descriptive study used the snowball sampling method to recruit participants. The study was conducted between 18 and 25 April 2020 with a total of 710 participants. The data were collected using a sociodemographic questionnaire and the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory. Ethics committee approval was obtained to conduct the study, and the data were analyzed using the SPSS 24.0 statistical package program using descriptive statistics, t tests and ANOVA. Results: In the study, 46.8% of the participants were in the 26–35 age group, 60.7% were female, 19.9% worked at clinics with COVID-19 patients (service, intensive care and emergency clinics), and 17.6% had a chronic disease. The state and trait anxiety mean scores of the participants were 60.29 ± 6.13 and 44.18 ± 7.69, respectively. Statistically significant differences were found in the participants’ state and trait anxiety levels with respect to their age, gender, unit of work, marital status, status of having children and presence of a chronic disease (p < 0.05). Conclusion: The state and trait anxiety levels of the healthcare workers in the study were found to be “severe” and “moderate,” respectively.