2.1. Study Groups
The population of this cross-sectional survey study consisted of healthcare professionals working as family physicians in Turkey.
The data collection period started on 22 December 2020 with a group of 50 people, the majority of whom were physicians working in the Family Medicine Clinic in XXX XXX Hospital. First of all, data collection forms were sent to physicians as online questionnaires via e-mail (GoogleGroups) and communication groups (Facebook, WhatsApp). After being asked sociodemographic and descriptive questions, the physicians were administered the SAVE-9 scale consisting of 9 questions and 2 sub-dimensions, which was developed in Korea by Chung et al. in order to evaluate the extent of stress and anxiety in healthcare professionals, and then translated into Turkish by Akça and Bilgiç.6,7 The data collection forms containing the scale were delivered to other family physicians in the form of an online questionnaire via e-mail and communication groups by snowball sampling. After subtracting the answers of 3 participants who declined to participate in the study, 24 participants whose questionnaires were received back more than once, and 3 participants who gave inappropriate answers (such as having more years of professional experience than their age), the answers of the remaining 500 family physicians from 53 different provinces were recorded and the first phase ended on 11 January 2021.
On 14 January 2021, the period of mass vaccination started first with healthcare workers in Turkey. In the present study, the scale was administered once again in March 2021 to 50 family medicine physicians identified at the beginning of the study, considering that they had already received two-dose vaccination, and their answers were recorded.
After obtaining permission prior to the study to use the translated Turkish version of the scale,
the necessary approval was obtained from the Clinical Research Ethics Committee of XXX XXX with the approval number 20/14 dated 22.12.2020. The study was conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki.