Adaptation and Validation of the Brazilian Version of the Fear of COVID-19 Scale
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Adaptation and Validation of the Brazilian Version of the Fear of COVID-19 Scale Francisco Roberto Sanchez Cavalheiro 1,2
& Marina Greghi Sticca
1
Accepted: 16 October 2020/ # Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2020
Abstract
The pandemic caused by COVID-19 has generated psychological impacts, such as fear of this disease. The authors developed the Fear of COVID-19 Scale (FCV-19S), which aims to assess the fear of COVID-19 in the general population. Adapt and validate the FCV19S for the Portuguese language in the Brazilian context. Four main initial steps were performed: translation, back-translation, semantic validation, and experimental application. Snowball sampling corresponded to 354 Brazilian participants. Psychometric tests were performed to investigate the validity and reliability of the test, such as confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). Analysis of the data showed satisfactory internal consistency (α = 0.88), and CFA (factor loads from 0.57 to 0.86) confirmed the unidimensional structure. The Brazilian version of FCV-19S is considered valid, reliable, and appropriate for application among the general Brazilian population and may contribute to the prevention, treatments, and mental health programs, resulting from the pandemic of COVID-19. Keywords Fear . COVID-19 . Coronavirus . SARS-CoV-2 . Pandemic . Fear of COVID-19 Scale The COVID-19 pandemic has caused a parallel epidemic of fear (Yao et al. 2020). According to data published on the website of the Ministry of Health of Brazil, on June 21, 2020, at 18:45, this country accumulated 1,085,038 confirmed cases of COVID-19, of which 50,617 corresponded to confirmed deaths (lethality rate = 4.7%), 549,386 relate to recovered cases, and 485,035 correspond to cases being monitored, with an incidence of 516.3 and mortality of 24.1, both for every 100 thousand inhabitants (Ministry of Health of Brazil 2020). At the time, Brazil was the second country with the most confirmed cases and deaths by COVID-19, just behind the USA (Johns Hopkins University 2020). Patients with confirmation or suspicion of being infected with the coronavirus (SARSCoV-2) may be afraid of the consequences of the potentially fatal disease, as well as health
* Francisco Roberto Sanchez Cavalheiro [email protected]
1
Department of Psychology, University of São Paulo, Ribeirão Preto, SP, Brazil
2
Campinas, Brazil
International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction
professionals, who may also experience the fear of contagion and spread the virus to their families, friends, or colleagues (Xiang et al. 2020b). In contexts of biological disasters, fear, uncertainty, and stigmatisation are common and can act as barriers to appropriate medical and mental health interventions (Xiang et al. 2020a). Doubtful or even false information about the factors related to the transmission of the virus, the incubation period, its geographical reach, the number of infected, and the actual mortality rate led to insecurity and fear in the population (Ornell et al. 202
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