The Problems Experienced by Employees with Chronic Disease during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

first_pagesettingsOrder Article Reprints Open AccessArticle The Problems Experienced by Employees with Chronic Disease during the COVID-19 Pandemic by Dilaver Tengilimoğlu 1,Uğur Gönüllü 2,Oğuz Işık 3,Nurperihan Tosun 4,Aysu Zekioğlu 5,*ORCID,Onur Tengilimoğlu 6 andMustafa Younis 7ORCID 1 Department of Management, Faculty of Management, Atılım University, Gölbaşı, Ankara 06830, Turkey 2 Department of Chest Disease, Faculty of Medicine, Atılım University, Gölbaşı, Ankara 06830, Turkey 3 Department of Health Management, Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences, Hacettepe University, Ankara 06100, Turkey 4 Department of Health Management, Faculty of Health Sciences, Cumhuriyet University, Sivas 58140, Turkey 5 Department of Health Management, Faculty of Health Sciences, Trakya University, Edirne 22030, Turkey 6 Department of Gynecology&Obstetrics, Faculty of Medicine, Istanbul University, Istanbul 34452, Turkey 7 Department of Health Policy and Management, Jackson State University, Jackson, MS 39217, USA * Author to whom correspondence should be addressed. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022, 19(1), 578; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19010578 Received: 22 November 2021 / Revised: 31 December 2021 / Accepted: 1 January 2022 / Published: 5 January 2022 (This article belongs to the Special Issue Global Health and Infection) Download Versions Notes Abstract Chronic diseases served as a silent global epidemic before the pandemic, and individuals living with chronic disease now form one of the groups most affected by COVID-19. This study aims to determine the problems that employees with chronic disease face during the COVID-19 pandemic. As part of the study, data were collected from 952 individuals who live with chronic disease in Turkey. Of these, 76.6% of respondents worked for the public sector, a large majority of whom (67.7%) have worked full time during the COVID-19 pandemic. It was found that the COVID-19 fear level of employees living with chronic disease was higher than moderate (21.061 ± 7.607). When the variables affecting the COVID-19 fear level are listed in order of relative significance, eating problems, residing in the Mediterranean region, having asthma, and working as a female employee made the greatest impact, respectively. Necessary conditions of work should be provided to those living with chronic disease who could adapt themselves to working flexibly or working from home, so that they would not feel isolated from business life. This group should be provided with essential protective equipment, their working conditions must be reviewed and vaccination priority could be given to them.