Assessment of knowledge and anxiety level of forensic science experts and technicians on SARS-CoV2 pandemic

This prospective, descriptive and cross-sectional study was conducted to evaluate the knowledge and anxiety levels of the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome – Corona Virus2(SARS – CoV2) Pandemic of forensic science experts and technicians working at the The Ministry of Justice Council of Forensic Medicine(ATK). Research data was obtained by a questionnaire including personal information, Coronavirus 19 Phobia (C19P – S) scale and knowledge level questions formed in line with the literature, applied on 295 people working in The Ministry of Justice Council of Forensic Medicine Presidency in Istanbul between 01/10/2020 – 30/11/2020. The results were formed according to the recorded answers which were analyzed using the IBM SPSS 20.0 (IBM Corp., Armonk, NY, USA) program. In data analysis, in addition to descriptive statistics, Kolmogorov-Smirnov and Shapiro-Wilk tests were used to check whether the data were suitable for normal distribution, and Spearman's correlation coefficient, T test, Mann Whitney U test and Kruskall-Wallis test were used in comparison analyses. Significance level was accepted as p<0.05. Of the forensic science experts and technicians participating in the research, 56.3% were male, 43.7% were female, 60% had graduate degrees, 20.3% undergraduate and 19.7% associate degree graduates, % 24.4% of them were 18-27 years old, 51.2% were 28-37 years old, 13.6% were 38-47 years old, 8.1% were 48-57 years old, 2.7% On the other hand, they were over 58 years old, 67.8% worked in specialized departments and 32.2% worked in specialized boards; 17.3% were forensic medicine specialists, 26.8% were forensic medicine residents, 8.1% were other specialist physicians, 10.8% were other specialists from different fields, 12.2% were engineers, and 24.7% were technicians. In the answers given to the questions asked to the participants for the purpose of knowledge level evaluation, no significant relationship or difference was found according to gender and the unit they work in. In the evaluation of knowledge level according to education level, the total knowledge scores of the graduate level attendants (16.57±7.51) were found to be lower than those of the undergraduate degree (23.74±6.52) and postgraduate degree(23.29±6.63) groups. It was determined that the group with the lowest knowledge evaluation total score according to the occupational group was the engineer(12.00±4.95). The knowledge level total score of forensic medicine specialists (24.78±5.98), forensic medicine residents (24.78±5.53) and technicians (23.84±6.61) who have been directly related to health is higher than other occupational groups. Participants' psychological sub-dimension mean score was 18.69±5.73, psychosomatic sub-dimension mean score was 8.93±3.72, social sub-dimension mean score was 14.65±4.47, and economic sub-dimension mean score was 8.54±3.39. The mean total score of the C19P – S scale was found to be 50.80±14.56. The psychological and total C19P – S scale scores of the female participants were higher than the men, and the total C19P – S scores of the participants working in the specialization departments were higher than the participants working in the specialization boards. The highest C19P – S scale total score was determined in the participants working as technicians. No statistically significant difference was found in the comparison of the C19P – S total score according to the education level of the participants. In the study, the knowledge and anxiety levels of forensic science experts and technicians were determined as "moderate". The findings of this study indicate that, in addition to the stress of working with a high risk of transmission during the epidemic process, postponed applications within the scope of infection control measures, thus accumulated workload, etc. may affect the psychological status of forensic science experts and technicians. However, the coping rates have been found to be strong enough to keep the stress level at "moderate". Moreover, moderate level knowledge scores may reveal the need for individuals to do more reading on health topics and perform more studies on SARS - CoV2 while it may also be seen due to the significant information pollution about SARS - CoV2 processes. Keywords: SARS – CoV2, pandemic, forensic medicine, forensic science, survey