Adaptation and initial psychometric study of the anxiety and fear of COVID-19 scale in the United Kingdom population

Cristina Morgado-Toscano; Regina Allande-Cussó; Javier Fagundo-Rivera; Yolanda Navarro-Abal; Jose Antonio Climent-Rodríguez; Juan Gómez-Salgado

doi:10.3389/fpsyt.2023.1071146

Adaptation and initial psychometric study of the anxiety and fear of COVID-19 scale in the United Kingdom population

Front Psychiatry. 2023 Feb 6:14:1071146. doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2023.1071146. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Cristina Morgado-Toscano^{1

2}, Regina Allande-Cussó³, Javier Fagundo-Rivera⁴, Yolanda Navarro-Abal⁵, Jose Antonio Climent-Rodríguez⁵, Juan Gómez-Salgado^{6

7}

Affiliations

¹ Health Sciences Doctorate, University of Huelva, Huelva, Spain.
² Health Sciences Research Unit: Nursing, University of Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal.
³ Nursing, University of Seville, Seville, Spain.
⁴ Centro Universitario de Enfermería Cruz Roja, University of Seville, Seville, Spain.
⁵ Faculty of Labour Sciences, University of Huelva, Huelva, Spain.
⁶ Department of Sociology, Social Work and Public Health, Faculty of Labour Sciences, University of Huelva, Huelva, Spain.
⁷ Safety and Health Postgraduate Programme, Escuela de Posgrado, Universidad de Especialidades Espíritu Santo, Guayaquil, Ecuador.

Abstract

Objective: The aim of the study was the initial psychometric study to validate the anxiety and fear of COVID-19 (AMICO) assessment scale in the general population of the United Kingdom population.

Materials and methods: A descriptive, cross-sectional, psychometric validation and descriptive study was conducted, performing univariate and bivariate analyses, as well as exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis.

Results: The sample was 658 people living in the United Kingdom over 16 years. Of the total, 80.5% were female, with a mean age of 48.25 years (SD = 14.861). A mean score for the AMICO scale of 4.85 (SD = 2.398) was obtained, with a range of scores from 1 to 10. The study of percentiles and quartiles allowed for the identification of three proposed levels of anxiety.

Conclusion: The AMICO_UK scale is reliable to measure the presence of anxiety and fear related to the COVID-19 disease in the United Kingdom population. The majority of the United Kingdom population presented low levels of anxiety and fear at the time the scale was administered.

Keywords: COVID-19; United Kingdom; anxiety; fear; scales.