Psychometric evaluation of the Portuguese version of the FCV-19 scale and assessment of fear of COVID-19 in a Southern Brazilian population

Abstract

This study aimed to evaluate and validate the Portuguese version of the Fear of and also to investigate the association of sociodemographic variables with the FCV-19S scores recorded in a sample of 3,495 women and 1,143 men recruited through a crosssectional online survey in the population of the State of Parana, Southern Brazil. The statistical analysis indicated that the Portuguese version of the FCV-19S has a unidimensional structure with robust psychometric properties. Besides, the mean score comparison and multiple logistic regression revealed statistically significant differences in gender, age groups, and educational status. These findings can provide a better understanding of the most emotionally vulnerable people in Brazil and assist in planning mental health actions.

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

“…Its internal consistency reliability (ordinal alpha of 0.90 and Cronbach's alpha of 0.87) was slightly higher than that reported by Ahorsu et al 8 (Cronbach's alpha of 0.82). The unidimensionality was consistent with several other studies, 10,11,[13][14][15]18,20,23,24,29,30 including three conducted with the Brazilian Portuguese-speaking population 33,35,36 and one African study conducted with the Ethiopian Amharic-speaking population. 31 In the present study, Mozambicans had an overall average fear score of 20.5 (SD = 5.8), which was lower than that reported in the Ethiopian study (21.65, SD = 5.58, for those living in the country, and 20.79, SD = 5.78, for those not living in the country).…”

“…Before applying the FCV-19S, Mozambican researchers revised the Portuguese version validated in Brazil. [33][34][35][36] The response for the items of the FCV-19S was recorded following a five-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree). The participant's overall fear score corresponds to the sum of the seven items' scores and varies from 7 to 35.…”

“…[41][42][43][44][45] Considering the diversity and cultural specificities of Africa, as well as the social configurations of the economic vulnerability of their populations and the fragility of African health systems, it is justifiable to replicate studies on fear. Furthermore, no study has so far addressed the pandemic fear in the population of Mozambique, and although the Portuguese version of the FCV-19S has been validated in the Brazilian population, [33][34][35][36] it needs to be validated in the Mozambique population due to its social and cultural particularities. In this context, this study aimed to validate the Portuguese version of the FCV-19S in the population of Mozambique and investigate its association with sociodemographic and pandemic-related variables.…”

“…Since the publication of the Persian version of the FCV-19S, 8 it has been translated into several other languages and evaluated based on samples from various countries: English [United Kingdom, New Zealand, USA, and India], [9][10][11][12] [24][25][26][27] Japanese [Japan], 28 Greek [Greece], 29 Vietnamese [Vietnam], 30 Ethiopian Amharic [Ethiopia], 31 and Portuguese [Brazil]. [32][33][34][35][36] The psychometric properties of the FCV-19S in these languages proved to be robust, with internal consistency reliability supported by Cronbach's alpha greater than 0.80. Most of the studies confirmed a unidimensional factor structure for the scale; however, others suggested two-factor solutions.…”

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

“…In this regard, Ahorsu et al (2020) recently developed the Fear of , to briefly assess the fear of COVID-19. 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).…”