Abstract:

INTRODUCTION: The novel-coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2 or COVID-19) epidemic and the measures taken to combat it have adversely affected the psychological-health of societies and individuals. In this study, it was aimed to examine the multi-relationship structure between some symptoms, demographic characteristics during the infection period of individuals treated for COVID-19 infection and their anxiety/depression levels after discharge. METHODS: One hundred individuals (n=100) who were treated with the diagnosis of COVID-19 participated in the study. Some symptoms and socio-demographic characteristics of the participants during the infection-period were recorded and the Beck anxiety/depression scale was administered to the participants after discharge. Firstly, variables that create multicollinearity were removed from the data set via explanatory-factor-analysis and the variable was reduced. Then, the independent-principal-components were determined and their attributes were found. The relationship structure between the features and the anxiety/depression levels of the patients was analyzed by reducing them to two dimensions via Multiple-Correspondence-Analysis. RESULTS: In this study, patients with chronic renal failure who received oxygen support during the infection process were positively associated with mild/moderate post-infection anxiety. Patients with chronic-renal-failure were found to have higher depression than those without. Patients with COPD who experienced loss of appetite and fever during the infection were positively associated with moderate to high levels of anxiety and moderate depression. In addition, these individuals received more oxygen-support during the treatment-process and the depression level of these individuals was higher than the other patients. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION: Our study revealed the multi-relationships structure between some symptoms and features seen during COVID-19 infection and post-COVID anxiety-depression levels.

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