The Korean Version of Fear of COVID-19 Scale: Psychometric Validation in the Korean Population

Objective Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has psychological effects such as anxiety and depression as well as direct infection in people. The Fear of COVID-19 scale is a scale that can measure anxiety related to COVID-19 in a short time. The purpose of this study was to verify the reliability and validity the Korean version of Fear of COVID-19 scale (KF-COVID-19S). Methods The data of total 186 normal adults and 17 patients were finally used for the statistical analysis. For internal consistency, Cronbach’s α was calculated. For concurrent and discriminant validity, the correlations with the Hospital Anxiety and Depression scale (HADS), Patient Health Questionnaire-15 (PHQ-15), World Health Organization Quality of Life Assessment Instrument Brief Form (WHOQOL-BREF) were analyzed. For construct validity, exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis were conducted. Results Cronbach alpha was 0.88. The two-factor model (factor 1: Physical fear, factor 2: Emotional fear) showed significantly positive correlations and appeared to be “good” fitness (CFI=0.906, IFI=0.907, NFI=0.902). Conclusion The KF-COVID-19S can be a useful scale that can measure the physical and emotional fears associated with COVID-19 in a short time. Because the psychiatric patients are a more vulnerable group to the fear, it is thought that the KF-COVID-19S will help to determine the patient’s level of anxiety and make a therapeutic plan for the underlying mental disorder.

[1]  A. Kujawa,et al.  Exposure to COVID‐19 pandemic stress: Associations with depression and anxiety in emerging adults in the United States , 2020, Depression and anxiety.

[2]  M. Potenza,et al.  Panic and generalized anxiety during the COVID-19 pandemic among Bangladeshi people: An online pilot survey early in the outbreak , 2020, Journal of Affective Disorders.

[3]  M. Teufel,et al.  Increased generalized anxiety, depression and distress during the COVID-19 pandemic: a cross-sectional study in Germany , 2020, Journal of public health.

[4]  Steven Taylor,et al.  Do pre-existing anxiety-related and mood disorders differentially impact COVID-19 stress responses and coping? , 2020, Journal of Anxiety Disorders.

[5]  Y. Bloch,et al.  Fear of COVID-19 scale: Psychometric characteristics, reliability and validity in the Israeli population , 2020, Psychiatry Research.

[6]  A. Pakpour,et al.  Psychometric Validation of the Bangla Fear of COVID-19 Scale: Confirmatory Factor Analysis and Rasch Analysis , 2020, International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction.

[7]  M. Ruggeri,et al.  Medically unexplained symptoms in the times of COVID-19 pandemic: A case-report , 2020, Brain, Behavior, & Immunity - Health.

[8]  Sherman A. Lee Coronavirus Anxiety Scale: A brief mental health screener for COVID-19 related anxiety , 2020, Death studies.

[9]  Bach Tran,et al.  A longitudinal study on the mental health of general population during the COVID-19 epidemic in China , 2020, Brain, Behavior, and Immunity.

[10]  B. Pfefferbaum,et al.  Mental Health and the Covid-19 Pandemic. , 2020, The New England journal of medicine.

[11]  A. Pakpour,et al.  The Fear of COVID-19 Scale: Development and Initial Validation , 2020, International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction.

[12]  Wenjun Cao,et al.  The psychological impact of the COVID-19 epidemic on college students in China , 2020, Psychiatry Research.

[13]  Zhi-lei Shang,et al.  Prevalence and Risk Factors of Acute Posttraumatic Stress Symptoms during the COVID-19 Outbreak in Wuhan, China , 2020, medRxiv.

[14]  Min Zhao,et al.  A nationwide survey of psychological distress among Chinese people in the COVID-19 epidemic: implications and policy recommendations , 2020, General Psychiatry.

[15]  Chung-Ying Lin Social reaction toward the 2019 novel coronavirus (COVID-19) , 2020, Social Health and Behavior.

[16]  Grant L Iverson,et al.  To err is human: "abnormal" neuropsychological scores and variability are common in healthy adults. , 2009, Archives of clinical neuropsychology : the official journal of the National Academy of Neuropsychologists.

[17]  R. Spitzer,et al.  The PHQ-15: Validity of a New Measure for Evaluating the Severity of Somatic Symptoms , 2002, Psychosomatic medicine.

[18]  S. Suh,et al.  Development of Korean Version of WHO Quality of Life Scale Abbreviated Version (WHOQOL-BREF) , 2000 .

[19]  M. Power,et al.  Development of the World Health Organization WHOQOL-BREF Quality of Life Assessment , 1998, Psychological Medicine.

[20]  D. Altman,et al.  Statistics notes: Cronbach's alpha , 1997 .

[21]  P. Lovibond,et al.  The structure of negative emotional states: comparison of the Depression Anxiety Stress Scales (DASS) with the Beck Depression and Anxiety Inventories. , 1995, Behaviour research and therapy.

[22]  S. Mulaik,et al.  EVALUATION OF GOODNESS-OF-FIT INDICES FOR STRUCTURAL EQUATION MODELS , 1989 .

[23]  Huston Gj,et al.  The Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale. , 1987, The Journal of rheumatology.

[24]  H. Kaiser An index of factorial simplicity , 1974 .

[25]  P. Masand,et al.  Psychometric properties of the Patient Health Questionnaire-15 (PHQ-15) for measuring the somatic symptoms of psychiatric outpatients. , 2009, Psychosomatics.

[26]  R. Spitzer,et al.  The PHQ-9: validity of a brief depression severity measure. , 2001, Journal of general internal medicine.

[27]  P. Bentler,et al.  Cutoff criteria for fit indexes in covariance structure analysis : Conventional criteria versus new alternatives , 1999 .