The Fear of COVID-19 Scale (FC-19S) has a stable unidimensional structure with robust psychometric properties. Higher overall scores on the FCV-19S indicate more severe fear of COVID-19, as the correlation with PVDS and HADS suggests, and gender and age does not seem to affect the response pattern of the fear on the FCV-19S. Therefore, FCV-19S can be relied upon to assess and deal with the psychological issues emanating from COVID-19 among males and females as well as individuals of all ages.

Summarization of Results

The scale can help allay the fears of the public on COVID-19 and subsequently help in reducing the stigma, anxiety, and stress attached to it. The scale can also help assess the psychological situation of the people and the measured properties may suggest that suggests that individuals with severe fear of COVID-19 may have certain comorbid disorders.

How it may be helpful

- all these participants were from the general Iranian population and no formal diagnoses on mood disorders were obtained
- Self-report means that there is the possibility that respondents may have provided responses affected by social desirability factors
- convenience sampling weakens the generalizability
- needs further verification

Limitations in Study of the "Fear of COVID-19 Scale"

- Summarization of Results
- How the Scales can Help
- Limitations

Syracuse University

Smith College

One of the reasons why little attention is paid on the psychological effect of Covid-19 in the current treatment is the lack of an appropriate psychometric instrument. Therefore, to be able to provide further information to facilitate public health initiatives on allaying public’s fears, a study in Iran developed and validated a scale assessing the fear of coronavirus. The researchers named the scale as the Fear of COVID-19 Scale (FCV-19S)

The Fear of COVID-19 Scale: Development and Initial Validation

Ahorsu, D.K., Lin, C., Imani, V. et al. The Fear of COVID-19 Scale: Development and Initial Validation. Int J Ment Health Addiction (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11469-020-00270-8

- extensive literature review was conducted to assess all general scales on fear. (they had accessed up to 30 different scales. The relevant and possible items were pooled and similar content or expressions were removed
-  an expert panel evaluated the 28 items and deleted 11 items
- a different expert panel reviewed the remaining 17 items and deleted 7 more.
- the 10-item scale was piloted on 46 individuals to obtain initial assessment of the scale

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