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.