2.3. Measures

To assess the fear of COVID-19 in the senior population, the proprietary seven-item questionnaire “Scale of fear of COVID-19 infection” was developed based on three steps [13]. First, an extensive literature review was performed to evaluate all available scales on fear. Twenty measures were selected that assess fear on different populations and diseases. After eliminating items with analogous content, 16 items were accepted for further assessment. Second, an expert panel (comprising a psychologist, psychiatrist, internal medicine specialist, a geriatric specialist, a family medicine specialist, pulmonologist, a health education specialist, and a nurse) evaluated the 16 items, and nine items were removed based on the recommendation from the expert panel. Third, the seven-item scale was piloted on 38 individuals (20 males and 18 females) to obtain initial evaluation of the scale. A four-point Likert scale was used to verify whether the subjects understood the item descriptions. This structured tool was developed originally in the Polish language and translated to English. The results showed that all respondents fully understood the item descriptions (mean 3.69, SD = 1.02).

Participants stated their position in a questionnaire using a five-point Likert scale (ranging from “1 = strongly disagree”, “3 = neither agree nor disagree”, and “5 = strongly agree”). Hence, the cumulative score ranged from 7 to 35, where the higher the scores, the greater the fear of COVID-19. The answers to the survey questions are presented in Table 1. The anxiety scale was validated to assess the reliability of the items. The homogeneity of the items assessed by the Cronbach’s Alpha index was α = 0.88, which was satisfactory.

Assessment of fear of COVID-19 infection, based on a developed and validated “Scale of fear of COVID-19 infection” tool.