Psychometric properties of the Coronavirus Anxiety Scale based on Classical Test Theory (CTT) and Item Response Theory (IRT) models among Chinese front-line healthcare workers

BACKGROUND: Since March 2022, the COVID-19 epidemic has rebounded widely and frequently in China. Healthcare workers have faced grand challenges such as soaring COVID-19 patients, being busy with the nucleic acid screening of all the populations in the epidemic areas every day, and testing positive for COVID-19, all of which contributed to anxiety easily according to the Conservation of Resources theory. However, anxiety among healthcare workers is not only associated with personal health but also adversely affects the quality of health services. Therefore, it is crucial to search for suitable tools to monitor the anxiety related to COVID-19 among healthcare workers. The current study aimed to test the Coronavirus Anxiety Scale (CAS) in Chinese healthcare workers. METHODS: The current study employed a cross-sectional design. The CAS was translated into Chinese. Then, according to Classical Test Theory (CTT) and Item Response Theory (IRT) models, the psychometric properties of the Chinese version were measured among 811 healthcare workers. RESULTS: The split‐half reliability was 0.855. The Cronbach’s α coefficient was 0.895. The retest coefficient was 0.901 with 10 days as the retest interval. The content validity index was 0.920. In exploratory factor analysis, one common factor was extracted and explained 72.559% of the total variance. All item load values on the common factor ranged from 0.790 to 0.885, and the communality of each item ranged from 0.625 to 0.784. With confirmatory factor analysis, the single factor model showed an excellent goodness-of-fit, chi-square/degree of freedom (χ(2)/df) = 3.339, goodness of fit index (GFI) = 0.992, adjusted goodness of fit index (AGFI) = 0.975, root-mean-square error of approximation (RMSEA) = 0.054, root mean square residual (RMR) = 0.005, incremental fit index (IFI) = 0.967, Tucker-Lewis index (TLI) = 0.932, and comparative fit index (CFI) = 0.966. The multiple-group confirmatory factor analysis revealed the invariance measuring anxiety of COVID-19 was in similar ways across ages, hospital degrees, and professional titles. With convergent validity, the CAS was positively correlated with post-traumatic stress disorder (r = 0.619, P < 0.001), fear of COVID (r = 0.550, P < 0.001), and depression (r = 0.367, P < 0.001). According to IRT models, the results showed that all item discrimination parameters were higher than 1.70 and difficulty parameters ranged from 1.13 to 2.83. CONCLUSION: The Chinese version of CAS has good psychometric properties in healthcare workers after China adjusted the COVID-19 management measures during the COVID-19 Omicron epidemic, and can be used for assessing the anxiety associated with COVID-19 in Chinese healthcare workers.