Psychometric evaluation of Korean version of COVID-19 fear scale (K-FS-8): A population based cross-sectional study

COVID-19-related fear negatively affects the public’s psychological well-being and health behaviours. Although psychological distress including depression and anxiety under COVID-19 is well-established in literature, research scarcely evaluated the fear of COVID-19 with a large sample using validated scale. This study aimed to validate a Korean version of fear scale(K-FS-8) using an existing fear scale(Breast Cancer Fear Scale; 8 items) and to measure the fear of COVID-19 in South Korea. A cross-sectional online survey was conducted with 2235 Korean adults from August to September 2020. The Breast Cancer Fear Scale was translated from English into Korean using forward-backward translation, and then face validity was assessed. Patient Health Questionnaire-4 and Primary Care Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Screen for DSM-5 were used for assessing convergent validity of K-FS-8, and item response theory analysis was also conducted to further validate the K-FS-8. This study confirmed the validity and reliability of the K-FS-8. The validity of the scale was confirmed by convergent validity, known-group validity and item response theory analysis, and internal consistency was also examined(Cronbach’s α coefficient = 0.92). This study also identified that 84.6% participants had high COVID-19 fear; whilst 26.3%, 23.2% and 13.4% participants had high risk of post-traumatic stress disorder, depressive and anxiety symptoms, respectively. The K-FS-8 showed the acceptability measuring the fear of COVID-19 in the Korean population. The K-FS-8 can be applied to screen for fear of COVID-19 and related major public health crises identifying individuals with high levels of fear in primary care settings who will benefit from psychological support.