3.2 The Relationship between Participants’ History of Contact and Treatment with COVID-19 within the Last Month and Their Psychological Response Levels
538 (15.2%) of the participants had a history of meeting with someone diagnosed with COVID-19 and 159 (4.5%) had a history of contact with an individual with suspected COVID-19 or contaminated materials. 206 (5.8%) of the individuals were tested for COVID-19 in the last month, 80 (2.3%) were quarantined, and 30 (0.8%) were treated. 1637 (46.1%) people stated that they did not know about their contact history with an individual/object contaminated with COVID-19. The presence of a history of contact with a COVID-19 had a 2.3-times increase in the risk of anxiety (p <0.001, OR = 2.297), and 1.43 times enhancing effect in the risk of depression (p = 0.029, OR = 1.428). Having a contact history with contact with an individual with suspected COVID-19 or infected materials, increased the risk for depression 2 times (p <0.004, OR = 2.005), 1.84 times for stress (p = 0.028, OR = 1.838) and 1.77 times (p = 0.013, OR = 1.773) had an enhancing effect for IES-R. The test history for COVID-19 had a 1.62 times protective effect on trauma formation (p = 0.035, OR = 0.617). Although quarantine status had a protective effect on anxiety and stress, it had 2.35 times risk-reducing effects for anxiety and 2.99 times for stress (p = 0.027, OR = 0.424, p = 0.016, OR = 0.334, respectively). Treatment with COVID-19 did not affect psychological impact. Data related to the participants’ history of contact and treatment with COVID-19 within the last month and their psychological response levels are shown in Table 2.
3.3 The Relationship between the Presence of Physical Symptoms within the Last Month and Psychological Response Levels
When the participants were questioned whether they had experienced any / several of the symptoms of fever, cough, sore throat, shortness of breath, chest pain, headache, runny nose, muscle pain, diarrhea, nausea in the past 1 month; 302 (8.5%) for fever, 880 (24.8%) for cough, 1248 (35.2%) for sore throat, 390 (11%) for shortness of breath, 404 (11.4%) for chest pain, 1953 (55% )for headache, 1057 (29.8%) for rhinorrhea, 1300 (36.6%) for myalgia, 602 (17%) for diarrhea, 558 (15.7%) for nausea answered positive (i.e., presence). The three most common symptoms were headache, myalgia, and sore throat, respectively.
In the analysis made, different symptoms caused different levels of psychological response. The presence of fever in the last 1 month had an enhancing effect on the development of anxiety (p <0.001, OR = 2.193) and stress (p = 0.013, OR = 1.572). Sore throat was associated with high anxiety and IES-R (p = 0.049, OR 1.282, p = 0.016, OR = 1.431, respectively). Chest pain had an effect on increasing the risk for anxiety (p <0.001, OR = 2.269) and trauma (p = 0.049, OR = 1.34). Shortness of breath had an increasing effect on the risk of experiencing anxiety (p <0.001, OR = 2.286) and depression (p = 0.016, OR = 1.431). Headache, rhinorrhea, diarrhea, cough did not pose a risk in psychological response. Nausea increased the risk of developing anxiety and stress by 1.37 and 1.489 times, respectively, compared to those who did not have nausea (p = 0.028, OR = 1.37; p = 0.007, OR = 1.489). The relationship between the presence of physical symptoms and psychological responses in the last 1 month is given in Table 3.