COVID-19 Related Fear, Risk Perceptions, and Behavioral Changes According to Level of Depression among Nursing Students

Kyungmi Kim, Hyesun Jeong and Jongeun Lee
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Kyungmi Kim: Department of Nursing, Gangdong University, Eumseong-gun 27690, Korea
Hyesun Jeong: Department of Nursing, College of Nursing & Health, Kongju National University, Gongju-si 32588, Korea
Jongeun Lee: Department of Nursing Science, College of Medicine, Chungbuk National University, Cheongju-si 28644, Korea

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 8, 1-11

Abstract: Depression may have a negative impact on health behaviors during crisis situations, such as the COVID-19 pandemic. Accordingly, the present study aimed to investigate the effects of depression felt by nursing students on their infectious disease response. A total of 241 nursing students from two nursing colleges in Chungcheong Province was convenience sampled between 2 and 12 December 2020. The tools used in the study were the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 Korean version, Fear of COVID-19 Scale, COVID-19-related risk perceptions, and COVID-19 behavior changes. The depression group showed higher fear scores and lower behavioral change scores than the non-depression group. Such findings indicated that the depression group did not actively perform COVID-19-related preventive behaviors. With respect to the influencing factors of depression, depression scores were 2.28 times higher among sophomores than seniors; fear scores were 1.09 times higher in the depression group than the non-depression group; and behavioral change scores were 0.87 times lower in the depression group than the non-depression group. Based on the findings in the present study, it is necessary to screen nursing students with depression during disaster crisis situations, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, and provide active psychological support to such students for their mental health care.

Keywords: COVID-19; nursing students; depression; fear; risk perception; behavior (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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