A multi-centric study on validation of the Fear Scale for COVID-19 in five Arabic speaking countries

Background: The Eight-item Fear Scale is a unidimensional scale evaluating the perceived feelings of fear associated with the thought of the coronavirus. Aim: The Arabic version of this scale did not exist; hence, this study aimed to translate and evaluate the psychometric properties of the Fear Scale in participants aged 18 years and above in five Arabic countries: Egypt, Lebanon, Libya, Saudi Arabia, and Sudan by using a cross-sectional survey design. Method: The English version of the COVID-19 Fear Scale was translated into Arabic following the guidelines and disseminated through social media. Factorial and convergent validity and internal reliability were evaluated. Results: The total number of participants was 2783; the majority was young (41.9%) and female (60.5%). Fear scores were moderate in four countries and severe in Egypt. The scale showed good structural validity, with the items explaining up to 70% of the variance. The scale items correlated significantly with the total scores, and the Cronbach alpha was above 0.9. Conclusion: The study concluded that the Arabic Fear Scale is a psychometrically robust scale that can be used to evaluate the perceived feelings of fear with the thought of the coronavirus or pandemic in general.