Validation and Psychometric Properties of the Arabic Version of the Fear of COVID-19 Scale Using Item Response Theory

Abstract

The deadliest infectious pneumonial disease clouded the globe with fear and terror intensively. Even though most of the world's attention is focused on the consequences of the coronavirus on physical wellbeing, the virus's psychological ramifications must not be disregarded. However, few screening tools have been introduced and evaluated to assess COVID-19's psychological impact. The Fear of COVID-19 Scale (FCV-19S) determines the degree of COVID-19-related fear. The study aimed to assess the reliability and psychometric properties of the newly translated fear administrative tool FCV-19S in Arabic using Item Response Theory (IRT). Responses were collected from the general Saudi population.  Inclusion criteria were being (i) resident in Saudi Arabia, (ii) aged 18 years or older, and (iii) being able to understand spoken Arabic. Participants were recruited from online advertisements and google forms. Initial descriptive were calculated including skewness and kurtosis on the recruited participants (n = 720). Exploratory and confirmatory analysis proved the scale’s internal consistency to be adequate. The psychometrics of the scale were analyzed using item response theory, which suggested the proved the scale’s item consistently discriminating. FCV-19S has high psychometric qualities for measuring COVID-19 fear in the general population of Saudi Arabia, according to the findings.