Examining the opinions of the teachers working in primary and secondary schools in uşak about coronavirus anxiety, health anxiety and their own family physicans

Introduction: Anxiety is a response to vague and uncertain threats and dangers with physiological, psychological, and behavioral patterns. It affects the whole system and the existence of the person. During the pandemic, COVID-19 disease health anxiety is expressed as excessive concern about one's health or perceiving the changes in the body as the harbinger of a severe illness. Objective: In this study, we aimed to reach the participants' opinions about health anxiety levels, coronavirus anxiety levels, and their family physicians and determine the relationship between these variables. Methods: The research is of cross-sectional-analytical type. The survey technique related to quantitative methods was preferred to collect data in the study. The researcher administered questionnaires face to face. Questions asked by the researcher were answered orally by the participant and marked on the questionnaire by the researcher. We used four instruments to collect data: sociodemographic information form, health anxiety inventory (short version), coronavirus anxiety scale, and EUROPEP family physician evaluation form. Descriptive statistics (frequency analysis, descriptive statistics, mean, standard deviation, minimum, maximum, median, analytical comparisons) and reliability analysis, correlation analysis, regression analysis, Mann Whitney U test, and Kruskal Wallis analysis were used as statistical analysis. The level of significance in the study was accepted as p<0.05. The research universe consists of teachers (a total of 2000 teachers) working in primary and secondary education in the province of Uşak. We collected data between February and May 2021. Using the Epi-info program, we calculated the sample size as 323 with a 95% confidence interval and a 5% margin of error. Results: 54.2% of the participants were female, and 45.8% were male. The average age of the participants was 40.32. When the chronic diseases of the participants were examined, 15.17 of the 323 participants (n=49) had a chronic disease. According to gender, teachers have a significant difference in their coronavirus anxiety scores (P=0.032; P<0.05). The mean score for coronavirus anxiety of female teachers is higher than that of male teachers. The coronavirus anxiety score of participants with any psychological disorder is much higher than those without any psychological disorder. There is a negative, weak, significant relationship between health anxiety and positive perceptions about the family doctor (r=-0.178; p<0.01). Conclusion: Having health anxiety may be a predictor for having coronavirus anxiety. The reason why the coronavirus anxiety of the participants was not affected by the opinion of their family physicians may be due to the participants' seeing the COVID-19 pandemic as a health problem that exceeds the family physicians' ability to provide health care. It can be conceivable that motivating the patient, eliminating his worries and fears, gaining the physician's trust in the patient, and contributing positively to the psychological aspect of the patient-physician relationship may reduce health anxiety. Keywords: Coronavırus anxiety in teachers, health anxiety inventory (short version), EUROPEP.