Development of the Indian scale of the fear of COVID-19

Sayeed, Neha; Patel, Sneha; Das, Sneha

BACKGROUND: The first human case of COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus causing COVID-19, subsequently named SARS-CoV-2 was reported by the officials in Wuhan City, China, in December 2019. In India, on January 31, 2020, the first case of COVID-19 was reported. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The Indian scale of fear related to COVID-19 (ISF-C19) Scale was developed in Hindi and was rated by two raters. Then, it was applied on twenty individuals (ten males and ten females) as a pilot study. The study had been conducted in Eastern India, in the state of Jharkhand. ISF-C19 was completed by 118 participants (females – 75; males – 43), aged 18 years or older from the community, and the subjective well-being was assessed. The psychometric properties of this instrument were investigated. Safety measures (i.e., mask, maintaining distance, gloves, and sanitizers) were taken throughout the data collection period. RESULTS: Findings suggested that this scale has adequate sampling, adequate interitem reliability coefficient, and higher overall scores on the ISF-C19 indicated more severe fear related to COVID-19. CONCLUSION: In light of the current scenario of the emerging cases in India, there is an urgent need to develop a scale related to COVID-19 as there is no published Indian standardized scale before this recent outbreak of pandemic. Considering the current scenario, this scale is useful to assess the fear related to COVID-19.