The fear and anxiety levels of Akdeniz University Faculty of Medicine students related to the COVID-19 pandemic and their relationship with vaccination behavior

Aim: Students over the age of 18 who were studying at Akdeniz University Faculty of Medicine, who agreed to participate in the study and gave consent were included in our study. It is aimed to determine the students' fear and anxiety levels related to the COVID-19 pandemic and their relationship with vaccination behavior.Method: Our research, which is a descriptive and cross-sectional study, was applied face-to-face through a questionnaire. A research questionnaire asking the participants who accepted to participate in the study about their sociodemographic characteristics, having COVID-19 and being vaccinated, the Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 Test (GAD-7) to identify the cases of generalized anxiety disorder and assess the severity of symptoms, and the COVID-19 phobia status of the participants. The COVID-19 Phobia Scale (COVID-19 Phobia Scale) was administered by face-to-face interview technique. Analyzes were performed with IBM SPSS (Statistics Package Program for Social Sciences) version 25.0. Statistical significance level was accepted as p<0.05.Results: The mean age of the 421 participants evaluated within the scope of the study was 21.47±2.17 years (min=18, max=33), 50.8% were female, 19.4% were term 1, 5% were term 2, 38.3% were term 3, 9.7% were term 4, 12.5% were term 5 and 15.1% were term 6 students, and 10% had a chronic illness that required medication. 19.2% of the participants and 83.4% of the participants' family or relatives reported that they were diagnosed with COVID-19. Each participant has received at least 1 COVID-19 vaccine. 31.8% of the participants had mild anxiety, 18.5% had moderate anxiety, and 8.8% had high anxiety. While anxiety levels are higher in the female gender, those diagnosed with COVID-19 in themselves and their close relatives, the anxiety levels are lower in term 5-6 students, those whose parents have a primary education level, and those who quit smoking. Participants have a low level of COVID-19 phobia. While the levels of COVID-19 Phobia are higher in Term 5 students and those with a chronic illness, the levels of COVID-19 Phobia are lower in married students.Conclusion and recommendations: The changes experienced due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the infection's impact on the whole world and the uncertainties have caused negative effects on the mental health of medical students. The presence of anxiety symptoms appears to be associated with a high fear of COVID-19. It is important to provide psychological and social support to medical students so that they can cope with the problems they have experienced during the pandemic period. All students have been vaccinated, which is the most important way to protect against COVID-19. Today, the existence of vaccine rejection and vaccine indecision is obvious, and medical students, who set an example to the society as future doctors, should be adequately informed about vaccination.Keywords: Anxiety, fear of COVID-19, medical students