Abstract
BackgroundAny disease outbreak creates psychological stress and anxiety among the public [e.g., Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19)]. There are several scales that assess anxiety specifically related to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Stress and Anxiety to Viral Epidemics-6 items (SAVE-6) scale is a reliable and valid tool to assess anxiety in any viral pandemic. The present study aims to validate the SAVE-6 scale in the Bangla language and culture, to assess such anxiety among the general Bangladeshi people.MethodsThe SAVE-6 scale was translated into Bangla from English using the forward-backward translation procedure. A total of 357 Bangladeshi citizens participated via an online structured questionnaire. The items included questions on personal information, COVID-19 and vaccination, psychiatric history, the Bangla version of the SAVE-6 scale, the Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 items (GAD-7) scale, and the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 items (PHQ-9) scale.ResultsBoth exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) were used to explore and confirm the single factor structure of the SAVE-6 scale in Bangla to be the same as that of the SAVE-6 scale. Multigroup CFA revealed invariance across sex, experience of being quarantined, experience of being infected, and presence of depression. Item analysis results showed good discrimination indices and internal consistency and reliability. The graded response model outputs also confirmed the validity and reliability of this scale, which had significant correlations with the GAD-7 and PHQ-9.ConclusionOverall, the Bangla version of the SAVE-6 is a psychometrically good scale to assess viral pandemic-related anxiety.
Highlights
Since the first report of the coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID19) case in December 2019 in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China1, the virus spread rapidly worldwide
The present study aims to validate the Stress and Anxiety to Viral Epidemics-6 items (SAVE-6) scale in the Bangla language and culture, to assess such anxiety among the general Bangladeshi people
In the initial emergency response to control the community transmission of COVID-19, the Bangladesh government shut down all educational institutions on March 17, 2020, and imposed a countrywide lockdown on March 26, 2020, which was extended to May 31
Summary
Since the first report of the coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID19) case in December 2019 in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China, the virus spread rapidly worldwide. During 2 years of COVID19, 281,808,270 confirmed cases and 5,411,759 deaths had been reported worldwide. In Bangladesh, the first COVID-19 case was identified on March 08, 2020; 10 days later, the first related death was reported. The Bangladesh government imposed a nationwide lockdown once again from April 05 to July 14, 2021. There are several scales that assess anxiety related to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Stress and Anxiety to Viral Epidemics-6 items (SAVE-6) scale is a reliable and valid tool to assess anxiety in any viral pandemic. The present study aims to validate the SAVE-6 scale in the Bangla language and culture, to assess such anxiety among the general Bangladeshi people
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