Fear of COVID-19 scale: Psychometric characteristics, reliability, validity and factors predictive of fear in the Pakistani population

Abstract

There is a growing concern regarding mental health and psychological distress caused by the COVID-19. The degree of fear has been assessed by few studies but most of those used invalidated measures. Fear of COVID-19 scale (FCV-19S) is a seven-item scale developed during this pandemic. We evaluated the psychometric properties of the Urdu version of FCVS-19 in the Pakistani population. They were also asked the question about COVID-19 factors that were associated with fear. The Urdu translation of the measure has excellent internal consistency and validity. Our study shows FCV-19S has robust psychometric characteristics and can be used to assess mental health.

Keywords:

• Fear
• COVID-19
• coronavirus
• anxiety
• validation
• Urdu
• stress

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank all the respondents who helped us conduct this research.