Özet:

Aim: COVID-19 remains the biggest health crisis in the age we live in. It is obvious that this pandemic will cause psychological and physical disorders. The aim of this study is to investigate the frequency of anxiety caused by the COVID-19 pandemic in patients with cancer and the factors that may affect it. Material and Methods: This is an observational, single-center study involving 235 cancer patients admitted to our outpatient clinic. The Turkish validated "Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7" questionnaire form was preferred to evaluate patients' anxiety levels. We also asked patients how long they thought about COVID-19 during the day. Results: More than one-third of the cancer patients had high and severe anxiety levels because of COVID-19. Severe anxiety was significantly higher in patients with metastatic disease (p<0.001). In addition, the rate of severe anxiety was higher in patients with ECOG-PS 2-3 versus ECOG-PS 0-1 (p<0.001). Those who thought about COVID-19 for more than 3 hours per day had severe anxiety scores (p<0.001). There was no significant relationship between the age, gender or educational status of the patients with the time to focus on COVID-19 and anxiety levels (respectively; p=0.754, p=0.283, p=0.276 and p=0.689, p=0.628, p=0.626). However, approximately two-thirds of patients (66.40%) were more concerned about different issues than COVID-19. Conclusion: In our study, most cancer patients surveyed were significantly concerned about both COVID-19 infection and delaying active cancer treatments, especially for patients with metastatic disease and poor performance status. In particular, patients in this group should be provided with more careful psychological support.

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