Confirming validity of The Fear of COVID-19 Scale in Japanese with a nationwide large-scale sample

Haruhiko Midorikawa; Miyuki Aiba; Adam Lebowitz; Takaya Taguchi; Yuki Shiratori; Takafumi Ogawa; Asumi Takahashi; Sho Takahashi; Kiyotaka Nemoto; Tetsuaki Arai; Hirokazu Tachikawa

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0246840

Confirming validity of The Fear of COVID-19 Scale in Japanese with a nationwide large-scale sample

PLoS One. 2021 Feb 10;16(2):e0246840. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0246840. eCollection 2021.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Majors of Clinical Sciences, Graduate School of Comprehensive Human Sciences, University of Tsukuba, Tennoudai, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan.
² Faculty of Human Sciences, Toyo Gakuen University, Hongo, Bunkyo, Tokyo, Japan.
³ General Studies Department, Jichi Medical University, Yakushiji, Shimotsuke, Tochigi, Japan.
⁴ Division of Clinical Medicine, Department of Disaster and Community Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, University of Tsukuba, Tennoudai, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan.
⁵ Department of Psychiatry, Tsukuba University Health Center, Tennoudai, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan.
⁶ Department of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, University of Tsukuba, Tennoudai, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan.

Abstract

Assessing fear and anxiety regarding COVID-19 viral infection is essential for investigating mental health during this epidemic. We have developed and validated a Japanese-language version of The Fear of COVID-19 Scale (FCV-19S) based on a large, nationwide residential sample (n = 6,750) recruited through news and social media responding to an online version of the questionnaire. Data was collected from August 4-25, 2020. Results correlated with K6, GAD-7 and IES-R psychological scales, and T-tests and analysis of variance identified associated factors. All indices indicated the two-factor model emotional fear reactions and symptomatic expressions of fear a better fit for our data than a single-factor model in Confirmatory Factor Analysis (χ2 = 164.16, p<0.001, CFI 0.991, TLI = 0.985, RMSEA = 0.043). Socio-demographic factors identified as disaster vulnerabilities such as female sex, sexual minority, elderly, unemployment, and present psychiatric history associated with higher scores. However, respondent or family member experience of infection risk, or work/school interference from confinement, had greatest impact. Results suggest necessity of mental health support during this pandemic similar to other disasters.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Adolescent
Adult
Age Factors
Aged
Analysis of Variance
Anxiety / etiology*
Anxiety / psychology
Biological Products
COVID-19 / psychology*
Fear / psychology*
Female
Humans
Japan
Male
Mental Health
Middle Aged
Sex Characteristics
Socioeconomic Factors
Young Adult

Substances

Biological Products
beractant

Grants and funding

Program to Apply the Wisdom of the University to tackle COVID -19 Related Emergency Problems. (https://www.osi.tsukuba.ac.jp/fight_covid19/) The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.