Psychological Effects of COVID-19 in Medical Students

COVID-19 spread rapidly around the world, causing an acute infectious pneumonia pandemic. COVID-19 first seen in our country since 11 March 2020 in Turkey have also taken an epidemic form. Many social restrictions have been imposed to slow the spread, such as quarantine practices, curfews, restrictions on travel between countries / cities, restrictions on collective activities and social distance practices. In our country, formal education was suspended by the Higher Education Council and it was recommended that all processes including assessment and evaluation be carried out online. In this study, it was aimed to evaluate the psychological effects of Süleyman Demirel University Faculty of Medicine students due to the COVID-19 outbreak.

607 students gave opinions for the study (n=607). Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 (GAD-7) Test was preferred in the study because it was preferred in international studies.

Students' mean GAD-7 score was calculated as 10.24±3.95. 3 (0.5%) of the students were mild, 339 (55.8) were moderate, 168 (27.7%) were high and 97 (16%) were in serious anxiety. The average of anxiety of preclinical students (10.50±4.06) was calculated to be higher than the clinical period students (9.80±3.72) and a statistically significant difference was found between the two groups (p=0.028). 61 of the participants (10%) had COVID-19 positivity in themselves or in their relatives. The average of the students who had COVID-19 positivity in themselves or their close environment (11.37±4.34) was higher than the students who did not (10.12±3.89), and there was a statistically significant difference between the two groups (p=0.034). In our cross-sectional descriptive study, students' GAD-7 mean score was 10.24±3.95, which shows that students of Süleyman Demirel University Faculty of Medicine also had high prevalent anxiety disorders during the COVID-19 epidemic, in line with the current literature. As a result of this study in which we evaluated the psychological conditions of our students during the pandemic period.

Considering that the long-term effects of anxiety disorders will continue, we believe that it will be appropriate to plan activities for post-epidemic anxiety rehabilitation of our students in the evaluation of our post-epidemic education program.