Psychometric properties of the Persian COVID-19 phobia scale

Context: The COVID-19 pandemic had consequences such as fear and anxiety in humans. Aims: The present study aimed to adapt the COVID-19 Phobia Scale (C19P-S) into Persian and test the psychometric properties of the adapted scale. Settings and Design: This study was conducted in Iran during December 2020. Materials and Methods: The C19P-S was used to obtain data from 600 Iranian individuals aged 16–65 years. Statistical Analysis Used: Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) were used to evaluate the construct validity. The average variance extracted and construct reliability were used to assess the convergent validity and the maximum shared squared variance and average shared squared variance were used to assess discriminant validity. Cronbach's alpha was used to evaluate the internal consistency. Results: The results of EFA indicated that Kaiser–Meyer–Olkin value (0.831) approved sampling adequacy. The communality of Psy6 and factor loading of Soc5 were lower than 0.4; therefore, they were removed. The cumulative variance explained with 4 factors and 18 items was 69%. The results of the CFA indicated that the measurement model fits the data well (Goodness of Fit Index = 0.891, Tucker–Lewis Index = 0.901, Comparative Fit Index = 0.920, Incremental Fit Index (IFI) = 0.922, Root Mean Square Error of Approximation = 0.065, and χ2/df = 1.807), suggesting construct validity. Further, the results confirmed the convergent and discriminant validity. Cronbach's alpha coefficients of the four dimensions ranged between 0.760 and 0.878, suggesting that the Persian C19P-S is a reliable scale. Conclusions: Persian C19P-S with 4 dimensions and 18 items is reliable and valid in measuring the COVID-19 phobia among the Iranian general population.