Assessment of Fear of COVID-19 in Older Adults: Validation of the Fear of COVID-19 Scale

Abstract

There is no information in Peru on the prevalence of mental health problems associated with COVID-19 in older adults. In this sense, the aim of the study was to gather evidence on the factor structure, criterion-related validity, and reliability of the Spanish version of the Fear of COVID-19 Scale in this population. The participants were 400 older adults (mean age = 68.04, SD = 6.41), who were administered the Fear of COVID-19 Scale, Revised Mental Health Inventory-5, Patient Health Questionnaire-2 items, and Generalized Anxiety Disorder Scale 2 items. Structural equation models were estimated, specifically confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), bifactor CFA, and structural models with latent variables (SEM). Internal consistency was estimated with composite reliability indexes (CRI) and omega coefficients. A bifactor model with both a general factor underlying all items plus a specific factor underlying items 1, 2, 4, and 5 representing the emotional response to COVID better represents the factor structure of the scale. This structure had adequate fit and good reliability, and additionally fear of COVID had a large effect on mental health. In general, women had more fear than men, having more information on COVID was associated to more fear, while having family or friends affected by COVID did not related to fear of the virus. The Spanish version of the Fear of COVID-19 Scale presents evidence of validity and reliability to assess fear of COVID-19 in the Peruvian older adult population. Keywords Older adults . Reliability . Fear of COVID-19 . Bifactor model . Validity COVID-19, caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2), has spread rapidly throughout the world (Huang and Zhao 2020), affecting 188 countries with 13,135,616 confirmed cases and 573,869 of deaths, and increasing (data obtained from https:// coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html, on July 17, 2020). This disease presents a higher risk of mortality in people with comorbidity and older adults (Morley and Vellas 2020). In Latin

Cross-cultural measurement invariance of the fear of COVID-19 scale in seven Latin American countries

“…This is different from what has been reported in other studies in the United States, Europe, and Asia that suggest a one-dimensional model (e.g., Ahorsu et al, 2020;Mart ınez-Lorca et al, 2020;Pang et al, 2020;Perz et al, 2020;Sakib et al, 2020;Satici et al, 2020;Soraci et al, 2020) However, other studies also point to the presence of two factors (Bitan et al, 2020;Caycho-Rodr ıguez et al, 2020Huarcaya-Victoria et al, 2020;Masuyama et al, 2020;Reznik et al, 2020). Of particular importance are the results of Caycho-Rodr ıguez et al (2020) and Huarcaya-Victoria et al (2020), which suggest the presence of two factors underlying the fear of COVID-19 construct (emotional and physiological factor) in two Latin American countries: Argentina and Peru. According to other authors, the presence of these two factors makes sense because fear can be expressed in a subjective emotional experience and a physiological expression, two dimensions that are related but also independent of each other (Dror, 2014;Gross & Feldman Barrett, 2011).…”

“…First, the CFA results suggest that the twofactor related model (emotional and physiological factors) is the best fit in all Latin American countries evaluated, supporting the idea that the fear of COVID-19 is a multidimensional construct (Huarcaya-Victoria et al, 2020). This is different from what has been reported in other studies in the United States, Europe, and Asia that suggest a one-dimensional model (e.g., Ahorsu et al, 2020;Mart ınez-Lorca et al, 2020;Pang et al, 2020;Perz et al, 2020;Sakib et al, 2020;Satici et al, 2020;Soraci et al, 2020) However, other studies also point to the presence of two factors (Bitan et al, 2020;Caycho-Rodr ıguez et al, 2020Huarcaya-Victoria et al, 2020;Masuyama et al, 2020;Reznik et al, 2020). Of particular importance are the results of Caycho-Rodr ıguez et al (2020) and Huarcaya-Victoria et al (2020), which suggest the presence of two factors underlying the fear of COVID-19 construct (emotional and physiological factor) in two Latin American countries: Argentina and Peru.…”

“…The FCV-19S is a self-report measure developed by Ahorsu et al (2020) to measure the severity of the fear of COVID-19. We used the Spanish version of the FCV-19S (Huarcaya-Victoria et al, 2020) which has used in studies in Latin America (Caycho-Rodr ıguez et al, 2020. The FCV-19S has seven items with five response options on a Likert-type scale (1 ¼ strongly disagree to 5 ¼ strongly agree).…”

“…The FCV-19S was translated into different languages and has been shown to have adequate psychometric evidence of validity and reliability (Alyami et al, 2020;Andrade et al, 2020;Bitan et al, 2020;Broche-P erez et al, 2020;Caycho-Rodr ıguez et al, 2020Elemo et al, 2020;Giordani et al, 2020;Haktanir et al, 2020;Huarcaya-Victoria et al, 2020;Mahmood et al, 2020;Mart ınez-Lorca et al, 2020;Masuyama et al, 2020;Pang et al, 2020;Perz et al, 2020;Reznik et al, 2020;Sakib et al, 2020;Soraci et al, 2020;St anculescu, 2021;Tsipropoulou et al, 2020;Wakashima et al, 2020). However, many of these investigations have concluded that the FCV-19S has a one factor structure, while others report the presence of two factors related to physiological and emotional responses to the fear of COVID-19 (Bitan et al, 2020;Caycho-Rodr ıguez et al, 2020Huarcaya-Victoria et al, 2020;Masuyama et al, 2020;Reznik et al, 2020). In addition, recent studies have shown that people in various countries report different levels of fear of COVID-19 using the FCV-19S (e.g., Andrade et al, 2020;Broche-P erez et al, 2020;Doshi et al, 2020;Nikopoulou et al, 2020).…”

“…In this regard, the objective of this study was to examine the measurement invariance of the FCV-19S in the general population of seven Latin American countries (Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador, Mexico, Paraguay, Argentina, and Uruguay). Based on studies conducted with the Spanish version of the FCV-19S in the Latin American context (Caycho-Rodr ıguez et al, 2020Huarcaya-Victoria et al, 2020), it is expected that the structure of two related factors (responses physiological and emotional fear of COVID-19) are invariant despite cultural differences between countries. In addition, differences in fear of COVID-19 were evaluated among the seven countries.…”