Fear, anxiety, and knowledge levels of women who underwent gynecologic surgery during the COVID-19 pandemic

Kıncı, Mehmet Ferdi; Yeşilçınar, İlknur; Güvenç, Gülten; Ünver, Hikmet Can; Sivaslıoğlu, Ahmet Akın

doi:10.1590/1806-9282.20240422

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ORIGINAL ARTICLE • Rev. Assoc. Med. Bras. 70 (10) • 2024 • https://doi.org/10.1590/1806-9282.20240422 copy

Fear, anxiety, and knowledge levels of women who underwent gynecologic surgery during the COVID-19 pandemic

Authorship SCIMAGO INSTITUTIONS RANKINGS

SUMMARY

OBJECTIVE:

The objective of this study was to evaluate the fear, anxiety, and knowledge level in women who underwent gynecological surgical procedures during the COVID-19 pandemic.

METHODS:

This cross-sectional study was conducted on 188 women who underwent a gynecologic surgical operation in Muğla, Turkey. Data were collected by using demographics and obstetric detail form, questionnaire on knowledge, attitudes, and practice toward COVID-19, and State-Trait Anxiety Inventory-I (STAI-I).

RESULTS:

Most of the women perceived their surgical process as very urgent. Women felt fear mostly for being infected with the virus, and they were afraid of transmitting COVID-19 to another one. The COVID-19 knowledge scores of women who had undergone cancer surgery were statistically significantly higher than others (p=0.017). The STAI-I scores of women increased as their COVID-19 knowledge scores increased (p<0.05).

CONCLUSION:

This study demonstrated that women were afraid of COVID-19 infection during gynecological operation and due to hospitalization, sociodemographic characteristics affected the knowledge levels about COVID-19 infection, and the anxiety levels of the women. Planning appropriate interventions to decrease the fear and anxiety of women who undergo gynecological surgery during the pandemic is important to ensure that women adhere to their treatment and follow-up in the postoperative period.

KEYWORDS:
COVID-19; Gynecology; Surgery; Anxiety; Fear; Knowledge

Characteristics	Group (n=188)
Characteristics	Mean	±SD
Age	49.47	10.56
	n	%
Marital status
Single	33	18.6
Married	155	81.4
Educational status
Illiterate	10	5.3
Primary school	126	67.1
High school	27	14.4
University and higher	25	13.4
Employment status
Employed	35	18.6
Unemployed	147	78.2
Retired	6	3.2
Menopause status
Natural	76	40.4
Surgical	38	20.2
No menopause	74	39.4
Income status
Income less than expenses	63	33.5
Equal income and expense	103	54.8
Income more than expenses	22	11.7

Characteristics		COVID-19 Knowledge Scale				STAI-I
Characteristics		Mean	±SD	Z	p	Mean	±SD	Z	p
Marital status	Single	2.32	0.90	-1.422	0.155	42.33	8.99	-2.081	0.037^a aIndependent-sample t-test.
Marital status	Married	2.77	1.68	-1.422	0.155	45.52	8.29	-2.081	0.037^a aIndependent-sample t-test.
Employment status	Yes	3.57	2.11	19.755	<0.001^b bone-way ANOVA.	46.71	7.96	2.711	0.258
	No	2.44	1.36			44.81	8.47
	Retired	3.33	0.51			38.33	9.64
Education	Illiterate	2.40	0.84	0.770	0.857	41.40	7.38	8.483	0.037^b bone-way ANOVA.
	Primary school	2.72	1.83			46.05	7.86
	High school	2.59	1.00			42.92	8.39
	University and higher	2.76	0.92			43.08	11.07
Paying attention to warnings about COVID-19	Yes	2.44	1.13	-0.485	0.628	52.30	8.74	-2.437	0.015^a aIndependent-sample t-test.
Paying attention to warnings about COVID-19	Somehow	2.73	1.58	-0.485	0.628	44.52	8.35	-2.437	0.015^a aIndependent-sample t-test.
Fear of COVID-19	Yes	2.52	1.16	-1.675	0.094	45.33	8.13	-1.298	0.194
Fear of COVID-19	No	3.71	2.76	-1.675	0.094	42.80	10.23	-1.298	0.194
Diagnosis	Myoma, polyp	2.55	1.57	10.180	0.017^b bone-way ANOVA.	45.03	8.73	1.381	0.710
	Ovarian cyst	2.22	0.88			44.38	7.47
	CA	3.41	2.14			45.05	8.79
	Prolapse	2.81	0.95			45.00	8.81
Perceived urgency of surgical procedure	Urgent	3.00	1.15	0.719	0.396	52.00	8.08	6.547	0.011^b bone-way ANOVA.
	Very urgent	2.60	1.20			44.37	9.80
	Uncertain	2.70	1.78			45.45	7.02
	Do not know	3.04	2.49			45.09	3.92
Impact of COVID-19 on mental health	Largely affected	2.67	0.97	8.174	0.017^b bone-way ANOVA.	46.68	9.76	8.313	<0.016^b bone-way ANOVA.
	Partially affected	2.49	1.56			43.78	7.76
	No effect	3.88	2.58			46.22	7.22

Scales	COVID-19 Knowledge Scale		Feeling herself in the high-risk group		Fear of COVID-19 transmission due to hospitalization		STAI
Mean (±SD)	2.69 (1.58)		5.65 (2.87)		7.39 (3.06)		44.96 (8.48)
	r	p^a aPearson correlation test.	r	p^a aPearson correlation test.	r	p^a aPearson correlation test.	r	p^a aPearson correlation test.
STAI-I	0.102	0.171	0.109	0.136	0.027^a aPearson correlation test.	0.712
Feeling herself in the high-risk group	-0.036	0.635			0.437^a aPearson correlation test.	<0.001	0.109	0.136
Fear of COVID-19 transmission due to hospitalization	-0.090	0.228	0.437^a aPearson correlation test.	<0.001^b bCorrelation is significant at the 0.01 level.			0.027^a aPearson correlation test.	0.712

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[1] *Corresponding author: iyesilcinar14@gmail.com