The COVID-19 survivors suffer from severe psychosocial challenges related to the current pandemic. In this context, it was aimed to evaluate the coronavirus anxiety, generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), and post-traumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) and also determine the quality of life (QOL), and coping styles with stress in survivors by comparing them with non-COVID controls (NCs). This study was conducted from April 15 to October 15, 2021, as a cross-sectional study design. The study included 339 survivors who were confirmed with COVID-19 through clinical tests in the last 3 months and 321 NCs who had not been infected with COVID-19. Besides sociodemographic and clinical data, a set of valid and reliable assessment tools were used to measure outcomes of coronavirus anxiety, coping styles, post-traumatic stress, generalized anxiety, and quality of life. The total scores of IES-R, GAD-7, and CAS were significantly higher in survivors than in the NCs. These results revealed that survivors manifested higher levels of coronavirus anxiety, generalized anxiety, and post-traumatic stress symptoms (p < 0.05). In survivors, the rates of GAD and coronavirus anxiety were found to be 59.3% and 25.7%, respectively. Additionally, the majority of survivors (89.4%) reported the severity of anxiety as moderate to severe, and also almost two-thirds of them reported the psychological impact of the pandemic as moderate to severe. Furthermore, survivors were found to have a lower quality of life. The findings of this study indicate that survivors experienced higher levels of coronavirus anxiety, generalized anxiety, and post-traumatic stress, and had lower QOL. In addition, it was determined that survivors haven't been using active styles adequately in coping with stress. Thus, psychological intervention studies should be conducted and public mental health strategies should be developed. Providing psychosocial support and psychological guidance will contribute to mental health well-being, and improve the QOL and coping strategies.
Keywords: COVID-19 survivors; coping styles; coronavirus anxiety; generalized anxiety disorder; post-traumatic stress; quality of life.