Psychometric Properties of the Fear of COVID-19 Scale: a Response to Mercado-Lara et al. "Validity and Reliability of the Spanish Version of Fear of COVID-19 Scale in Colombian Physicians"

Chung-Ying Lin; Mark D Griffiths; Amir H Pakpour

doi:10.1007/s11469-021-00635-7

Psychometric Properties of the Fear of COVID-19 Scale: a Response to Mercado-Lara et al. "Validity and Reliability of the Spanish Version of Fear of COVID-19 Scale in Colombian Physicians"

Int J Ment Health Addict. 2023;21(2):973-975. doi: 10.1007/s11469-021-00635-7. Epub 2021 Sep 13.

Authors

Chung-Ying Lin¹, Mark D Griffiths², Amir H Pakpour^{3

4}

Affiliations

¹ Institute of Allied Health Sciences, College of Medicine, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan, Taiwan.
² International Gaming Research Unit, Psychology Department, Nottingham Trent University, 50 Shakespeare Street, Nottingham, NG1 4FQ UK.
³ Social Determinants of Health Research Center, Research Institute for Prevention of Non-Communicable Diseases, Qazvin University of Medical Sciences, Shahid Bahounar BLV, 3419759811 Qazvin, Iran.
⁴ Department of Nursing, School of Health and Welfare, Jönköping University, Jönköping, Sweden.

Abstract

A paper reporting the psychometric properties of the Spanish Fear of COVID-19 Scale (FCV-19S) among Colombian physicians was recently published in the International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction. Although we welcome the translation and validation of our seven-item scale, this commentary outlines some major concerns we have with the study especially the removal of two items in developing a five-item FCV-19S. Based on these concerns, we strongly recommend that healthcare providers and researchers should use the five-item FCV-19S with caution.

Keywords: Fear of COVID-19 Scale; Psychometric scale adaptation; Reliability; Spanish FCV-19S; Validity.

Publication types

Editorial