Abstract
Background: The Corona Virus Disease 2019 is a major ongoing concern for the adolescents with disability. Aim: The study aimed to assess the effect of covid-19 pandemic fear, anxiety and quality of life among adolescent girls with special needs. Design: Descriptive cross-sectional study. Setting: The study was conducted at Deaf& dumb and blind schools for girls. A total of 140 deaf & dumb and blind girls were included in the study. Study tools: Three tools were used included; tool 1 (Part 1): Personal characteristics of the adolescent girls with special needs. Tool 1 (Part 2): World Health Organization Quality of Life. Tool 2: The COVID 2019 Fear scale. Tool 3: COVID 2019 anxiety scale. Results: It was found that 90.7% of the girls were from rural area, 85.7% were deaf and dumb and 61.4% of them had secondary education. 67.1% of Adolescent girls with special needs had high quality of life before the pandemic while they had moderate quality of life during. Conclusion: Adolescent girls with special needs had high level of Quality of Life before the pandemic, while difficulties and restrictions during the pandemic negatively affected adolescent Quality of Life. Age, type of disability, parents’ education and occupation were affecting the quality of life domains. Recommendations: It is recommended to conduct training programs for adolescents with disabilities to improve their quality of life.
Keywords: Adolescent, Covid-19, Girls, Pandemic, Quality of Life, Special need