Abstract:
Negative situations experienced by healthcare professionals, such as the increased workload, the anxiety of being infected and infecting the individuals around them, have led to negative emotions such as fear and stress. In this study, it was aimed to evaluate the relationship between the fear of COVID-19 and emotional eating behaviors of healthcare professionals. In this study, it was aimed to evaluate the relationship between the fear of COVID-19 and emotional eating behaviors of healthcare professionals.
This study was carried out between June and July 2022, with the participation of 200 volunteers, aged 19-64, work in a state hospital. Questionnaire consisting of questions to define demographic information, health status, fear of COVID-19 scale, Emotional Eater Questionnaire (EEQ) was applied to individuals and anthropometric measurements of individuals were taken.
62.0 % (n=132) of the participants were diagnosed with COVID-19. Fear of COVID-19 scale scores of participants who did not have COVID-19 were found to be statistically significantly higher than those diagnosed with COVID-19 (p<0.05). Fear of COVID-19 scale and EEQ scores of female healthcare professionals were higher than males (p=0.018; p=0.003). EEQ scores of those diagnosed with COVID-19 and those who did not were found to be similar (p>0.05). A low level, positive and significant relationship was found between the Fear of COVID-19 scale and EEQ scores of healthcare professionals who diagnosed with COVID-19 (r=0.288; p<0.05). A moderate level, positive and significant relationship was found between the Fear of COVID-19 scale and EEQ scores of healthcare professionals who did not diagnose with COVID-19 (r=0.316; p=0.005). No significant correlation was found between the fear of COVID-19 scale scores and age and BMI (respectively r=0.083; p=0.244; r=0.136; p=0.054). A positive and significant correlation was found between the EEQ scores and BMI values of all healthcare professionals participating in the study (r=0.159; p=0.024). A positive and significant relationship was found between the Fear of COVID-19 and EEQ scores of all healthcare professionals participating in the study. The Fear of COVID-19 scale scores of healthcare professionals who diagnosed with COVID-19 are higher than those of healthcare professionals who did not.
