| ORIGINAL ARTICLE |
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| Year : 2020 | Volume
: 64
| Issue : 6 | Page : 201-204 |
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Development and Initial Validation of the COVID-19 Anxiety Scale
Viswa Chaitanya Chandu1, Srinivas Pachava2, Viswanath Vadapalli3, Yamuna Marella4
1 Assistant Professor, Department of Public Health Dentistry, Sibar Institute of Dental Sciences, Guntur, Andhra Pradesh, India
2 Professor and Head, Department of Public Health Dentistry, Sibar Institute of Dental Sciences, Guntur, Andhra Pradesh, India
3 Professor, Department of Public Health Dentistry, Sibar Institute of Dental Sciences, Guntur, Andhra Pradesh, India
4 Assistant Professor, Department of Periodontology, Sibar Institute of Dental Sciences, Guntur, Andhra Pradesh, India
Correspondence Address:
Viswa Chaitanya Chandu
Department of Public Health Dentistry, Sibar Institute of Dental Sciences, Guntur, Andhra Pradesh
India
 Source of Support: None, Conflict of Interest: None  | Check |
DOI: 10.4103/ijph.IJPH_492_20
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Background: Safeguarding the psychological well-being of the public is also an integral component of fighting COVID-19. However, there is limited availability of psychometric measures to document COVID-19-related anxiety among the general public. Objectives: This study was aimed at developing a validated scale to measure COVID-19-related anxiety. Methods: Three hundred and seven subjects from different gender, educational categories participated in the study. Exploratory factor analysis for the determination of factor structure, Pearson's correlation test, and Kruskal–Wallis ANOVA were employed in data analysis using SPSS version 20 software. Results: COVID-19 Anxiety Scale (CAS) demonstrated a two-component structure identified as: “fear of social interaction;” “illness anxiety.” The final scale with seven items demonstrated good internal consistency reliability (Cronbach's Alpha 0.736). CAS exhibited good construct validity showing moderately negative correlation (Pearson's r = −0.417) with the self-rated mental health and resulted in higher scores among individuals with lower educational qualification (Kruskal–Wallis ANOVA χ2 [2, 303] = 38.01; P = 0.001). Conclusion: CAS is a rapidly administrable, valid, and reliable tool that can be used to measure COVID-19-related anxiety among the Indian population.
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