The Psychology of Coronavirus Fear: Are Dentists of Pakistan Suffering from Corona-Phobia?

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study is to evaluate the level of anxiety and fear among Pakistani dentists due to COVID-19. METHODOLOGY: Data of 386 dentists evaluated who responded to the questionnaire sent via social media. Fear of coronavirus scale (FCV-19S) was used for evaluation of fear among Pakistani dentists. Data was entered and analyzed using SPSS version 21. One way ANOVA, chi-square and independent t-test were used for statistical analysis. P-value <0.05 was considered as significant. RESULTS: The overall mean FCV-19S score was 26.22 ± 4.907, which is on the higher end. Females showed higher fear scores as compared to males (p<0.001). A statistically significant difference between the scores of General Dental Practitioners (GDP) and specialists was also observed (p<0.001), Statistically, a significant difference was observed between all 4 age groups of dentists, young and elderly dentists demonstrating higher scores (F (3,382) = 8.618, p< 0.001). CONCLUSION: We conclude that due to the current COVID-19 crisis, majority of the dentists of Pakistan are afraid and among them, females, GDPs, young and elderly dentists are found to be more anxious and have a greater fear of getting infected by coronavirus during COVID 19 Pandemic. KEYWORDS: Anxiety, Fear, Pakistani, Dentist, COVID-19 HOW TO CITE: Majeed MM, Saleem Z, Sarwar H, Ramzan Z, Iqbal SN, Naeem MM. The psychology of coronavirus fear: Are dentists of pakistan suffering from corona-phobia?. J Pak Dent Assoc 2021;30(1):1-6.