Original Research

Development and Validation of an Indigenous Scale of the Fear Contracting COVID-19

Anam Ali1
Department of Developmental & Behavioral Pediatrics, The Children’s Hospital & The Institute of Child Health (CH&ICH), Lahore, Pakistan.
Sadia Abbas2
Center for Clinical Psychology, University of the Punjab, Lahore, Pakistan.
Asad Ali Khan3
North Medical Ward, King Edward Medical University, Lahore, Pakistan.
Sami Ullah Mumtaz3
North Medical Ward, King Edward Medical University, Lahore, Pakistan.
Ali Salman Khan4
Acute Medical Unit, North Manchester General Hospital, Manchester, England.

✉ Correspondence: Anam Ali Email: anam.ali90@hotmail.com

DOI https://doi.org/10.70302/jpsim.v2i2.2134
Volume: 2, Issue 2 Pages: 140–144 Published: 17 Jun 2021
Received: 01 Mar 2021 Accepted: 20 Apr 2021 Published Online: 17 Jun 2021

Abstract

Objective

COVID-19 pandemic has negative psychological impact on people and led to fear, anxiety, stress and
depression among general population. So, the present study is aimed to develop and validate a scale for assessing fear
related to COVID-19 pandemic.

Methods

Items of the scale were constructed from existing literature of COVID-19 and evaluation from experts.
Descriptive study was conducted on 980 participants using convenient sampling technique.

Results

Sample was collected from general population of age 18 years and above. Demographic questionnaire and Fear
contracting COVID-19 scale was administered to measure the intensity of fear experienced by people under COVID-19
pandemic situation. A principal axis factor analysis was conducted on 4 items with Varimax rotation to check the factor
structure of the Fear construct. One factor had eigenvalue over Kaiser's criterion of 1 and explained a cumulative variance
of 63.77%. Factor loading of all items was strong (0.76 to 0.83). Cronbach alpha of the scale was 0.82.

Conclusion

Thus, it can be concluded that Fear contracting COVID-19 is a reliable and valid scale to assess fear of
COVID-19 among general population.

Keywords
COVID-19 Fear Pakistan Reliability and Validity Tool development

How to Cite This Article

Ali A, Abbas S, Khan AA, Mumtaz SU, Khan AS. Development and Validation of an Indigenous Scale of the Fear Contracting COVID-19. J Pak Soc Intern Med. 2021;2(2):140–144. doi:10.70302/jpsim.v2i2.2134

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Conflict of Interest

All authors declare no competing interests.

Disclosed in accordance with ICMJE and COPE guidelines.

Funding

No specific funding was received for this research.

Funder information follows the Crossref Funder Registry standard.

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Reference list indexed for Google Scholar and ResearchGate. DOI links resolve via doi.org.

CC BY CC BY 4.0 This article is published under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. May be shared and adapted with attribution. © 2021 Journal of Pakistan Society of Internal Medicine.
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