Perceived Changes after Experiencing COVID-19 during the Early Stage of the Pandemic in South Korea

Background and Purpose: COVID-19 infection and the following quarantine experiences during the early stage of pandemic may have profoundly affected many aspects of the self among COVID-19 survivors. Although COVID-19 survivors experienced significant psychological sequelae and widespread stigmatization, they also experienced growth and positive changes in their lives. However, little is known about what changes they perceived once they returned to their daily lives. This study explored COVID-19 survivors’ perceived changes in self after experiencing COVID-19 and social quarantine during the early stage of COVID-19 pandemic in South Korea.

Methods: Fifteen COVID-19 survivors (five men and 10 women) were recruited through purposive and snowball sampling with online flyers posted on social media. Semistructured in-depth interviews were conducted via phone in June 2021. The average age of the participants was 34.7 years. All participants were infected with COVID-19 between February 2020 and April 2021, when the fear about COVID-19 and social stigma toward COVID-19 survivors were strong in Korea. Thirteen participants reported being quarantined at a government-designated quarantine facility and two were quarantined at a hospital for 7 to 21 days. The elapsed period between release from quarantine to the time of participation in the study was 3 to 13 months. Thematic analysis was used to derive themes and subthemes from the data.

Results: Four themes and 11 subthemes on perceived changes among Korean COVID-19 survivors were identified: (a) changes in self-concept (feeling intimidated, being a troublemaker, and opportunities for in-depth self-reflection); (b) changes in relationships with others (building strong bonds with family, sharing suffering, finding true love and support from family, valuing relationships with others, and reprioritizing relationships in my life); (c) changes in life perspectives (appreciating daily life, changing perspectives on hardship into a positive experience, and motivation to help others); and (d) changes in awareness of health (increasing awareness of the disease, recognizing the importance of health, and being more conscious of following COVID-19 prevention guidelines). While getting back to their daily lives after quarantine, survivors had a chance to reconstruct their experiences of the infection and quarantine. This encouraged them to look at themselves, their relationships with significant others, and the world around them from a new perspective. It also helped them become motivated to help others and engage in health-promoting behaviors.

Conclusions and Implications: This study highlights perceived changes in self from the perspectives of COVID-19 survivors who experienced quarantine in the early stage of COVID-19 in South Korea. They perceive adverse impacts of being infected by COVID-19, but they also experienced a positive perspective shift through deep self-reflection and increased value regarding their relationships and health. Gaining further understanding of life changes perceived by COVID-19 survivors may help professionals develop support services and education that foster their growth and positive changes and alleviate traumatic experiences. Future studies can work with survivors of diverse infectious disease to help them adapt to daily life after recovery.