Abstract
Since December 2019, the COVID-19 pandemic has attracted worldwide attention for its rapid and exponential diffusion. The long-term psychological impact, of both the spread of the virus and the restrictive policies adopted to counteract it, remains uncertain. However, recent studies reported a high level of psychological distress and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) symptoms. The purpose of this study is to assess the psychometric properties of a new questionnaire, to evaluate PTSD risk related to the COVID-19 emergency. A total of Italian people completed a web-based cross-sectional survey broadcasted through different social-media. Demographic data and some psychological dimensions, such as general distress and sleep disturbance, were collected. A new self-report questionnaire (COVID-19-PTSD), consisting of 19 items, was developed starting from the PTSD Check List for DSM-5 (PCL-5) questionnaire, and it was administered in order to analyze its psychometric properties. The results highlighted the adequate psychometric properties of the COVID-19-PTSD questionnaire. The confirmatory factor analysis indicated that a seven-factor model (Intrusion, Avoidance, Negative Affect, Anhedonia, Dysphoric arousal, Anxious arousal and Externalizing behavior) best fits the data. Significant correlations were found among COVID-19-PTSD scores, general distress and sleep disturbance. A high percentage of PTSD symptomatology (29.5%) was found in the Italian population. COVID-19-PTSD appears to be effective in evaluating the specific stress symptoms related to the COVID-19 pandemic in the Italian population. These results are relevant from a clinical point of view because they suggest that the COVID-19 pandemic could be considered as a traumatic event. Psychological interventions to counteract short- and long-term psychopathological effects, consequent to the COVID-19 pandemic, appear to be necessary.
Highlights
Since December 2019, an outbreak of pneumonia associated with a new coronavirus (i.e., SARS-CoV-2; COVID-19) has been reported in several parts of the world, and its rapid and exponential diffusion forced the World Health Organization (WHO) to declare it a pandemic [1]
This study aimed to assess the psychometric proprieties of a new questionnaire designed to investigate the severity of the Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) symptomatology associated with the current COVID-19 pandemic
This study intended to examine the prevalence of PTSD symptomatology in the Italian population during the phases immediately following the outbreak of the COVID-19 and the imposed measures of social distancing
Summary
Since December 2019, an outbreak of pneumonia associated with a new coronavirus (i.e., SARS-CoV-2; COVID-19) has been reported in several parts of the world, and its rapid and exponential diffusion forced the World Health Organization (WHO) to declare it a pandemic [1]. As reported by some studies [2,3,4,5,6], these extreme measures, along with the fear and uncertainty of an unknown infection, have impacted on people’s lifestyles, generating high levels of psychological distress, anxiety and mood alterations. Both the fear of contracting the virus and the measures. Public Health 2020, 17, 4151; doi:10.3390/ijerph17114151 www.mdpi.com/journal/ijerph
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