Validation of the FCV-19 Scale and Assessment of Fear of COVID-19 in the Population of Mozambique, East Africa

Abstract

This study aimed to validate the Portuguese version of the Fear of COVID-19 Scale (FCV-19S) and investigate its association with sociodemographic and pandemicrelated variables in the population of Mozambique. Participants and Methods: A cross-sectional online survey recruited 387 Mozambicans aged 18 to 70 years. The psychometric properties of the Portuguese version of the FCV-19S were evaluated using confirmatory factor analysis and Rash analysis. Additionally, the association of the FCV-19S with sociodemographic and pandemic-related variables was investigated using the two-sample t-test, one-way analysis of variance, and logistic regression. Results: The unidimensional factor structure of the Portuguese version of the FCV-19S was confirmed, and the scale showed good internal consistency reliability. The FCV-19S properties tested from the Rasch analysis were satisfactory. Women and those with lower education levels had higher scores of fear. Moreover, significantly higher levels of fear were observed among those being in an at-risk group for COVID-19, having family members or friends diagnosed or with death confirmed by COVID-19, and not being confident that they would receive adequate care from the public health services in case of COVID-19 infection. Conclusion: The Portuguese version of FCV-19S has strong psychometric properties and can be used to assess the fear of COVID-19 in the Portuguese-speaking population of Mozambique. As the adverse impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on mental health represents a challenge to clinical psychiatry, and information on mental health in African countries is still scarce, our findings may assist in the planning of public mental health policies, aimed mainly at specific segments of the population, such as women and people in extreme poverty.

Measuring anxiety and fear of Covid-19 among older people: psychometric properties of anxiety and fear of Covid-19 scale (AMICO) in Spain

“…The levels of anxiety and fear of the COVID-19 seem to be lower for this age group over 65 (mean = 5.11 ± 1.83) than for the general population, as compared to the data reported by the authors of the AMICO scale in their previous study [ 34 , 35 ], who found mean values of 5.54 (± 1.83) and a range with higher upper limit values (from 1.22 to 10 points). Other studies with older populations also found lower values of fear in older adults than other lower age groups or compared to the general population [ 22 , 23 , 32 , 58 , 59 ], which is corroborated by the meta-analysis by Lin et al [ 36 ] with data from the use of the FCV-19 scale in eleven studies from different countries and general population samples of different ages. In this sense, another work with samples of older people [ 60 ] reports relatively lower values of fear of COVID-19 than in the general population in the same context, based on FCV-19 scale measures [ 61 ], with no differences between age groups above 65 years (65–74, 75–85, and 85–94 years).…”

Psychometric properties of the Fear of COVID-19 Scale amongst black South African university students

“…In spite of the FCV-19S being unidimensional, there is a pattern of response to the items where endorsements of items 3, 6 and 7 are comparatively low when contrasted with the scores of the remaining items. The pattern was observed in mean scores reported by studies such as Elemo et al (2020), Giordani et al (2021), Pang et al (2020), Perz et al (2020), Sakib et al (2020), Satici et al (2020), Soraci et al (2020) and Winter et al (2020). A closer inspection of the items shows that they refer to physiological reactions because of COVID-19 fear (Alyami et al, 2020).…”

“…To this end, Ahorsu et al (2020) developed a seven-item Fear of COVID-19 scale (FCV-19S) to evaluate anxiety specific to COVID-19, based on the protection motivation theory (Rogers, 1975). The measure has been translated into a number of languages and validated in a number of countries including Bangladesh (Sakib et al, 2020), China (Chi et al, 2021), Ethiopia (Elemo, Satici, & Griffiths, 2020), France (Mailliez, Griffiths, & Carre, 2020), Greece (Tsipropoulou et al, 2020), Israel (Bitan et al, 2020), Italy (Soraci et al, 2020), Japan (Masuyama, Shinkawa, & Kubo, 2020) Malaysia (Pang et al, 2020), Mozambique (Giordani, Giolo, Muhl, Estavela, & Gove, 2021), New Zealand (Winter et al, 2020), Russia (Reznik, Gritsenko, Konstantinov, Khamenka, & Isralowitz, 2020), Saudi Arabia (Alyami, Henning, Krägeloh, & Alyami, 2020), Turkey (Satici, Gocet-Tekin, Deniz, & Satici, 2020) and Vietnam (Nguyen et al, 2020). Most of the studies consistently found that the FCV-19S has a unidimensional factor structure.…”

Gender and COVID-19 related fear and anxiety: A meta-analysis

“… Collectivism Morales-Rodríguez, 2021 180 4.5 Spain Europe University students 20.76 Individualism Giordani et al, 2021a 4638 7 Brazil South America General population 41.50 Collectivism Kassim et al, 2021 255 5.5 Malaysia Asia General population N.A. Collectivism Giordani et al, 2021b 387 9.5 Mozambic Africa General population 34.50 Collectivism Ahammed et al, 2021 1317 4 Bangladesh Asia University students N.A. Collectivism Yalçın et al, 2021 588 6.5 Turkey Europe General population 30.42 Collectivism Studies included in the meta-analysis for gender and COVID-19 related anxiety Magano et al, 2021 1122 10.5 Portugal Europe General population 31.90 Individualism van de Venter et al, 2021 248 N.A.…”