Objectives: Public health risks and anxiety have been increasing since the outbreak of Coronavirus disease 19 (COVID-19). The public expresses questions related to the COVID-19 issue through the web base. The aim of this study was to analyze public perception and sentiments of COVID-19 Pandemic in South Korea. Methods: We collected the text data (questions: 252,181) related to COVID-19 from Naver Knowledge-iN during January 1, 2020 to December 31, 2020. The search keywords included related to COVID-19 using Korean words for “SARS-Cov-2”, “COVID19”, “COVID-19”, “Wuhan pneumonia”, “Coronavirus”, “Corona”. A topic modeling analysis was used to investigate and search trends of public perception.The sentiment analysis was conducted to analyze of public emotions in the questions related to COVID-19. We performed the Pearson’s correlation analysis between daily number of COVID-19 cases and daily proportion of negative sentiment in documents related to COVID-19 by COVID-19 outbreak period. Results: A total of 241,776 documents used in this study. The most frequent words in the documents to appear cough, symptoms, tests, confirmed patients, mask and etc.Twenty topics (COVID-test, Economy, School, Hospital/Diagnose, Travel/Overseas, Health, Social issue, Symptom 1 (respiratory), Relationships, Symptom 2 (e.g., fever), Workplace, Mask/Social distancing, infection/Vaccine, Stimulus Package, Family, Delivery Service, Unclassified, Region, Study/Exam, Worry, Anxiety) were extracted using the topic modeling. There was a positive association between the daily counts of COVID-19 patients and proportion of negative sentiment. By COVID-19 period, Stage 4 had the highest correlation. Conclusion This study identified the South Korean public’s interest and emotions about COVID-19 during the prolonged pandemic crisis.

BACKGROUND: Because there has been a recent increase in refugee applications in Korea, the mental health of these refugees merits greater study. METHODS: We surveyed 129 refugees (including those in process of refugee application) and 121 migrant workers living in urban communities, using: the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 for depressive symptoms, the Impact Event Scale-Revised for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms, and the health questionnaires used in 2016 Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANES). The majority of refugee subjects were from sub-Saharan Africa and Middle East. We compared the prevalence of possible depression and possible PTSD between refugees and migrant workers and refugees and age-gender matched samples from the KNHANES 2016. RESULTS: Frequency of suicidal planning during the last year was higher in the refugee group than Korean nationals, but frequency of suicidal attempt was not. High risk drinking was found in 0.8% of refugees, 6.6% of migrant workers and 27.2% of Korean nationals. Possible depression was present in 42.9% of refugee subjects, 33.3% of migrant workers, and 4.2% of Korean controls. Possible PTSD was present in 38.9% of refugees compared to 12.5% of migrant workers. Only major risk factor for depression among refugees was a traumatic event before entering Korea. CONCLUSION: Possible depression and PTSD are significantly more prevalent in refugees, compared to both migrant workers and Korean nationals. Prevalence rates are commensurate with refugee studies worldwide. Appropriate early screening and intervention schemes need to be developed for refugees entering Korea.
Adult ; Africa South of the Sahara ; Depression ; Drinking ; Humans ; Independent Living ; Korea ; Mass Screening ; Mental Health ; Middle East ; Nutrition Surveys ; Prevalence ; Refugees ; Risk Factors ; Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic ; Transients and Migrants