Counseling Needs of COVID-۱۹ Hotline Callers: A Summative Content Analysis

Introduction: It is important to provide correct information to people during a pandemic to prevent social fear.In this regard, the present study was conducted with the aim of investigating the counseling needs of people who called COVID-۱۹ hotline in YAZD province, Iran. Material and methods: In this qualitative study, summative content analysis was used. Due to possible changes in counseling needs of the callers over time, the researchers first randomly checked ۵% of all calls received each day. Data saturation was obtained by examining ۵% of calls that were randomly selected. After reading of the recorded interviews, the selected words were counted and entered into the Excel file. Then the keywords were ranked. All keywords that seemed to have similar content were placed in related groups. Results: In general, ۱۰۲۳ audio files were analyzed. About ۱۲۷۹ analysis units were extracted and categorized into ۱۷ sub-categories and ۴ main categories. Among these, ۸۰% of the obtained analyzed units were assigned to ۸ subclasses, namely counseling needs regarding the symptoms of the disease (۳۵.۹۷%), patient care at home (۹.۳۸%), ways of disease transmission (۷.۲۷%), centers that provide services to patients (۵.۹۴%), fear of visiting medical centers (۵.۷۹%), reports of non-compliance with health protocols (۵.۵۵%), personal protective equipment (۵.۳۲%), disinfection of equipment and food (۵.۰۸%), were included. Conclusion: Generally, establishing a hotline during an epidemic is an easy and quick method. One of the missing links in such systems is the existence of a monitoring team and a suitable content production team. It is necessary to hear the calls received simultaneously or daily by a scientific committee and provide feedback to the respondents to identify the counseling needs of the community members.