Abstract
Introduction: fear is one of the main factors associated with psychopathological disor-ders evidenced in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Objective: translate and validate Fear of COVID–19 Scale (FCV-19S) into Portuguese Brazilian version, named Covid-19 Fear Scale (EMC-19). Methods: cross-sectional study with 364 individuals recruited through social networks, considering as inclusion criteria: being over 18 years old and fluent in Portuguese. After participant consentment an electronic form was completed, which included the prelimi-nary Portuguese version and EMC-19, in addition to sociodemographic variables. Data processing was performed using the SPSS 26 version. For parametric measures, Pear-son’s coefficient and Student’s T were used, and for non-parametric measures the U of Mann Whitney. The magnitude of the correlation coefficients was classified according to Cohen’s criteria and the confirmatory factor analysis using AMOS 26.0. For internal con-sistency, Cronbach’s alpha. Results: mean age of 33.11 years (±10,047), most of them female (n=332; 91,2%), with higher education (n=286; 78,6%), married (n=225, 61,8 %) and with children (n=300, 82,4%). Exploratory factorial analysis/EFA and confirmatory factor analysis/CFA made. Only one component emerged from the CFA, with an explained variance of 55,49%, re-sulting in a one-dimensional model with satisfactory adjustment indexes (X2/gl=2,135; RMSEA=0,061; CFI, TLI, GFI<0,095). Cronbach’s alpha coefficient is 876. Conclusions: the construct validity of the one-dimensional structure of the EMC-19 was demonstrated, as well as its good internal consistency.
Highlights
On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization decreed the SARS-COV-2 virus pandemic, responsible for COVID-191
This study aims to translate and validate the Portuguese version of the FCV–19S, which is called the Covid-19 Fear Scale (EMC-19)
Being a woman was a variable that was associated with higher levels of fear of COVID-19, in the results obtained in other studies that used Fear of COVID–19 Scale (FCV-19S), as well as being married44,45,46. they corroborate the findings in the literature regarding education that did not influence the perception of fear of the people in the sample[23,44,47]
Summary
On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization decreed the SARS-COV-2 virus pandemic, responsible for COVID-191. The first case in Brazil occurred on February 26, 2020, when the pandemic had already shown its expansion strength and lethality in China and in several countries in Asia and Europe. In Brazil, the pandemic arrived in late February, in mid March the inability of the federal government to manage epidemiological information was already evident, contributing to what has been called underreporting[2]. The country occupies fourth place in the world ranking of people affected by the pandemic[4], still adding difficulties in implementing measures to contain the spread of the infection, in particular actions to immunize the population. Despite all the sanitary measures adopted to control the dissemination of the coronavirus in the national territory, the psychosocial impact of the COVID-19 pandemic stands out, which, in its least relevant space among the adopted measures, represents a significant issue for the field of research and comprehensiveness of health care[5]
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