Development and validation of a scale to evaluate students' future impact perception related to the coronavirus pandemic (C-19FIPS).

During the outbreak of the novel COVID-19 pandemic, economies around the world underwent unprecedented changes, which negatively limited young people's perceptions of their future. The study aims to describe the development and validation of the 10-item COVID-19 Future Impact Perception Scale (C-19FIPS), a measurement tool to assess future impact perception related to COVID-19, among university students. Inductive and deductive approaches were used at the phase of the scale development process. Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA), Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) applying two different SEM based analytical methods, covariance-based SEM (CB-SEM) and variance based SEM (PLS-SEM) were used to explore and predict the data. The EFA output generated two dimensions with 10 items. The dimensions are Personal Perception (C-19 PF) and Country Perception (C-19 CF) that reflects the notion of Future Impact Perception related to COVID-19. The result of the CFA confirmed the EFA result. Based on the reliability and validity check results, it is apparent that the scale demonstrates good psychometric properties. Evidence was also provided for convergent and discriminant validity. The study provided a short, valid and reliable measure to assess the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on college students' future perceptions. Knowing how external situations influence the world of young people is useful for the development of targeted interventions that favor their well-being and that can support them in situations perceived as uncertain and risky. Limitations and future lines are discussed.

COVID-19 contagion concern scale (PRE-COVID-19): Validation in Cuban patients with type 2 diabetes.

AIMS: It is important to have valid and reliable measures to determine the psychological impact of COVID-19 in patients with diabetes; however, few instruments have been developed and validated for this population. Therefore, the aim of this study was to validate the Scale of Worry for Contagion of COVID-19 (PRE-COVID-19) in a sample of patients with diabetes mellitus (DM). MATERIALS AND METHODS: A total of 219 patients (66.2% female, mean age 58.5 SD = 18.2) participated, selected through non-probabilistic sampling. The PRE-COVID-19 and the Generalized Anxiety Disorder Scale-2 were applied. Reliability analysis was performed for internal consistency, structural equation modeling and item response theory modeling. RESULTS: The results show that a unidimensional 5-item model presents satisfactory goodness-of-fit indices and excellent reliability values. Likewise, convergent validity between the PRE-COVID-19 and a measure of anxiety is evident. All items present adequate discrimination parameters, allowing for discerning between those patients with critical concern about COVID-19 contagion from those with severe concern. CONCLUSION: It is concluded that the PRE-COVID-19 is an instrument with adequate psychometric properties to measure concern about COVID-19 infection and the emotional impact in patients with DM.

COVID-19 related mental health issues: a narrative review of psychometric properties of scales and methodological concerns in scale development.

OBJECTIVES: The global crisis of COVID-19 and its consequential strict public health measures placed around the world have impacted mental health. New scales and tools have been developed to measure these mental health effects. This narrative review assesses the psychometric properties of these scales and tools and methodological aspects of their development. METHODS: PubMed, PubMed Central, and Google Scholar were searched for articles published from 15 May 2020 to 15 August 2020. This search used three groups of terms ("tool" OR "scale" AND "mental" OR "psychological"; AND "COVID-19" OR "coronavirus"). The identified scales were further evaluated for their psychometric properties and methodological aspects of their development. RESULTS: Though the studies developing these scales (n = 12) have demonstrated their robust psychometric properties, some methodological concerns are noteworthy. Most of the scales were validated using internet-based surveys, and detailed descriptions of the mode of administration, sampling process, response rates, and augmentation strategies were missing. CONCLUSIONS: The heterogeneous and inadequate reporting of methods adopted to evaluate the psychometric properties of the identified scales can limit their utility in clinical and research settings. We suggest developing guidelines and checklists to improve the design and testing, and result in reporting of online-administered scales to assess the mental health effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Validation of the COVID-19 Fears Questionnaires for Chronic Medical Conditions: A Scleroderma Patient-centered Intervention Network COVID-19 Cohort study.

OBJECTIVE: Fear associated with medical vulnerability should be considered when assessing mental health among individuals with chronic medical conditions during the COVID-19 pandemic. The objective was to develop and validate the COVID-19 Fears Questionnaire for Chronic Medical Conditions. METHODS: Fifteen initial items were generated based on suggestions from 121 people with the chronic autoimmune disease systemic sclerosis (SSc; scleroderma). Patients in a COVID-19 SSc cohort completed items between April 9 and 27, 2020. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and item analysis were used to select items for inclusion. Cronbach's alpha and Pearson correlations were used to evaluate internal consistency reliability and convergent validity. Factor structure was confirmed with confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) in follow-up data collection two weeks later. RESULTS: 787 participants completed baseline measures; 563 of them completed the follow-up assessment. Ten of 15 initial items were included in the final questionnaire. EFA suggested that a single dimension explained the data reasonably well. There were no indications of floor or ceiling effects. Cronbach's alpha was 0.91. Correlations between the COVID-19 Fears Questionnaire and measures of anxiety (r = 0.53), depressive symptoms (r = 0.44), and perceived stress (r = 0.50) supported construct validity. CFA supported the single-factor structure (χ2(35) = 311.2, p < 0.001, Tucker-Lewis Index = 0.97, Comparative Fit Index = 0.96, Root Mean Square Error of Approximation = 0.12). CONCLUSION: The COVID-19 Fears Questionnaire for Chronic Medical Conditions can be used to assess fear among people at risk due to pre-existing medical conditions during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Development and validation of the Lo's Healthy and Happy Lifestyle Scale (LHHLS): The resilience in general population facing COVID-19 in Taiwan.

BACKGROUND: This article explores the effectiveness of development of the Lo's Healthy and Happy Lifestyle Scale (LHHLS), which is an evaluative tool that monitors the resilience of the Taiwan population in times of such COVID-19 epidemic. Also, to verify factors of resilience, namely the reliability and validity of self-efficacy and positive thinking, and establishment of a prospective norm analysis. METHOD: The study mainly applied Explorative Factor Analysis (EFA) and Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) to develop LHHLS and establish the reliability and validity of the tool's structure, verify norm analysis and the reliability of data from each question using Cronbach's alpha. RESULTS: According to statistics, LHHLS has a good factorial effectiveness and relatively high reliability, with factor reliability analyses where Cronbach's alpha lies between 0.83 to 0.94. The 14 questions in the LHHLS has a total variance of 67.04%. The tool includes two sub-assessments that are theoretically and statistically appropriate: mental health/self-efficacy and positive thinking. CONCLUSION: The tool LHHLS can be applied to populations affected by COVID-19. With participants' self-awareness of mental health state and state of happy living, this tool is valid and reliable in assessing and evaluating the resilience of such participants against times of COVID-19. This study can become future use for epidemic prevention communities in monitoring residents' healthy living and changes in their resilience. Also, can become a reference standard for interventions to reduce the impacts populations' happy and healthy living, in times of biological disasters.