A multi‐centric study on validation of the Fear Scale for COVID‐19 in five Arabic speaking countries

Brain and Behavior

Nagla Omar¹  Mohammad Ahmad²  Riyaz Shaik²  Mohamed Alboraie³  Khalid Alabdulwahhab⁴  Meshari Alzahrani⁵  Mayssah El Nayal⁶  Iman Elmahdi⁷  Naglaa Youssef⁸  Hiba Deek⁹  Bobo Kai Yin Chan^1,10  Daniel YT Fong^1,10  Edmond Pui Hang Choi^1,10 

[1] Community Medicine Department Alzaiem Alazhari University Faculty of Medicine;Department of Community Medicine and Public Health College of Medicine, Majmaah University Al Majmaah 11952 Saudi Arabia;Department of Internal Medicine Al‐Azhar University Cairo Egypt;Department of Ophthalmology College of Medicine, Majmaah University Al Majmaah 11952 Saudi Arabia;Department of Urology College of Medicine, Majmaah University Al Majmaah 11952 Saudi Arabia;Faculty of Health Sciences, Beirut Arab University Beirut Lebanon;Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Benghazi;Medical‐Surgical Nursing Department, Faculty of Nursing Cairo University Egypt;Nursing Department, Faculty of Health Sciences Beirut Arab University Beirut Lebanon;School of Nursing The University of Hong Kong;

关键词: Arabic;    fear;    psychometrics;    questionnaire;    reliability;    validity;   

DOI  :  10.1002/brb3.2375

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

Background The Eight‐item Fear Scale is a unidimensional scale evaluating the perceived feelings of fear associated with the thought of the coronavirus. Aim The Arabic version of this scale did not exist; hence, this study aimed to translate and evaluate the psychometric properties of the Fear Scale in participants aged 18 years and above in five Arabic countries: Egypt, Lebanon, Libya, Saudi Arabia, and Sudan by using a cross‐sectional survey design. Method The English version of the COVID‐19 Fear Scale was translated into Arabic following the guidelines and disseminated through social media. Factorial and convergent validity and internal reliability were evaluated. Results: The total number of participants was 2783; the majority was young (41.9%) and female (60.5%). Fear scores were moderate in four countries and severe in Egypt. The scale showed good structural validity, with the items explaining up to 70% of the variance. The scale items correlated significantly with the total scores, and the Cronbach alpha was above 0.9. Conclusion The study concluded that the Arabic Fear Scale is a psychometrically robust scale that can be used to evaluate the perceived feelings of fear with the thought of the coronavirus or pandemic in general.

【 授权许可】

Unknown