a comparative cross-cultural study of fear of covid-19 in persian and turkmen elderly populations

Background: it is believed that covid-19 has caused significant fear among older adults. the province of golestan has a unique ethnic diversity, which requires examining the beliefs and concerns of older adults about health and disease. the aim of this study was to compare the fear of covid-19 among persian and turkmen older adults. methods: this descriptive-analytical study was conducted on 500 older adults of persian and turkmen ethnicities covered by health centers in bandar turkmen (golestan-iran) from 2021 to 2022. sampling was done by availability, and the samples were extracted from the list of older adults in the nab system. demographic data and the covid-19 fear questionnaire were used to collect information. data were analyzed using spss version 18 and mann-whitney u, chi-square, and anova tests at a significance level of 0.05.results: the mean and standard deviation age of the participants in the persian and turkmen ethnicities were 70.99±6.91 and 73.66±7.66, respectively. the mean score of fear of covid-19 in persian older adults was 20.59±2.24, and in turkmen older adults was 22.02±1.34, which showed a statistically significant difference (p<0.001). fear of covid-19 had a significant statistical relationship with occupation, education level, history of covid-19 infection, hospitalization history, and having a covid-19 patient in the family (p<0.001).conclusion: the results of this study showed that fear of covid-19 was higher among persian older adults. ethnic and clinical differences in covid-19 can have an impact on preventive care in the healthcare system.