Evaluation of COVID-19 fear and nutrition habits in healthcare workers

Aim: This study aims to evaluate the COVID-19 fear level and nutrition habits of healthcare workers. Material and Methods: This research was conducted with 208 healthcare workers in Konya City Hospital and Meram State Hospital. Participants filled out the sociodemographic information form, COVID-19 Phobia Scale and Three-Factor Eating Questionnaire. The SPSS 22,0 program was used for data analysis. Results: Among participants between the ages of 18-65 included in the study, 59.1% (n=123) were female and 40.9% (n=85) were male. The average age of participants was found to be 29.32 +/- 0.43 years. In the COVID-19 Phobia Scale, scores of women in psychological (p<0.001), somatic (p=0.001), social (p=0.001), economic (p=0.001) sub-dimensions and total score (p=0.026) were found to be higher than those of men. Fear levels of married participants were higher in somatic (p=0.018) and economic (p=0.044) sub-dimensions. Scores of obese and overweight participants' in psychological (p=0.002), somatic (p=0.017), social (p=0.028), economic (p=0.011) sub-dimensions and in total score (p=0.001) were found to be lower. The total score of the Three-Factor Nutrition Questionnaire (p=0.017) and emotional eating levels (p=0.006) of healthcare workers who had COVID-19 before were found to be higher. It was detected that there was a positive correlation between the degree of emotional eating and the social sub-dimension (p=0.048), and there was a negative relationship between the degree of consciously restricting eating and the psychological sub-dimension (p=0.009). Discussion: Nutritional habits have changed due to isolation conditions, sedentary lifestyles and the need for supplemental food. The stressful and risky working environment of healthcare workers affected their fear levels. With the increase in the fear level, eating habits have also changed. As in all pandemics, policies should be followed to reduce the level of fear of healthcare workers, who are among risky groups, during the COVID-19 pandemic process. In this process, the importance of nutrition should be emphasized and negative habits should be avoided.