The Effect of Tele-Health Application on Anxiety Level and Quality of Life of Patients in COVID-19 Quarantine: A Quasi-experimental Study

The COVID 19 pandemic, which continues today, has caused radical changes in social, cultural, education, and health systems around the world(Zhang and Liu 2020; Wang et all 2020; Alipour &Abdolahzadeh 2020). In this period, health care providers tried to use telehealth services as a good alternative to solve the problems caused by quarantine, social isolation practices to reduce the rate of transmission of the disease, and the limitation of physical access to health services due to the risk of transmission.

Thus, the use of telehealth applications, which first started in the 1950s, gained momentum especially during the pandemic period (Byrne 2020; Lurie & Carr 2018; Clipper 2020; Fagherazzi 2020). Telehealth applications, which have the opportunity to be widely used during the COVID 19 pandemic period, are generally a system that provides two-way communication between healthcare professionals and patients and includes image, speech, and digital communication technologies (Hazin & Qaddoumi, 2010; Merz et all 2021; Bryne 2020). Tele-monitoring is a good option to support patients in the management of existing physical symptoms of quarantined patients who are isolated at home, except for patients who need outpatient or hospital treatment in the COVID 19 pandemic. In studies investigating the presence of mental problems as a result of the decrease in the social support of the patients in this group due to social isolation, the study results indicate that the patients experience negative conditions such as depression, stress, sleep problems, and anxiety (Verma 2020, Alipour et all 2020; Chakeri et all 2020).

Therefore, when quarantined patients are evaluated holistically, there is a need for studies evaluating the effect of telehealth services to increase the quality of life by coping with mental problems such as anxiety and depression. Although there are studies in the related literature showing that telemonitoring can cope with physical problems, improve quality of life, and reduce mental problems such as anxiety and depression, studies showing the effect of telemonitoring given to quarantined patients on anxiety and quality of life are quite limited (Kamei et all 2021; Jahromi et all 2016; Charekei et all 2020; Allipour et all 2020). For this reason, our study was carried out to evaluate the effect of telemonitoring service to be given to patients kept under quarantine during the COVID 19 pandemic on anxiety and quality of life.