Measurement of coronaphobia in older adults: Validation of the Spanish version of the Coronavirus Anxiety Scale

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: The Coronavirus Anxiety Scale (CAS) is an instrument that measures the severity of anxiety due to COVID-19 or coronaphobia. In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, older adults are the most vulnerable age group; therefore, the aim of the study was to evaluate the psychometric properties of the CAS in this group. MATERIALS AND METHOD: 274 Peruvian older adults participated (M(age) = 67.86; SD = 6.34, 64.6% women). In addition to the CAS, the 2-item Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-2), and 2-item Generalized Anxiety Disorder Scale (GAD-2) were applied. Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) was used to assess the factor structure of the CAS and Item Response Theory was used to analyze item characteristics. A sequence of hierarchical variance models was used to evaluate the measurement invariance of the CAS according to age. To assess reliability, Cronbach's alpha coefficient (α) and the omega coefficient (ω) were used. The correlations between the CAS score and the scores of the PHQ-2 and GAD-2 scales were calculated with Pearson's correlation coefficient (r). RESULTS: The results of the CFA indicated that the unidimensional model of the CAS fitted the data adequately and showed very good reliability (α and ω ≥ .83). Likewise, all items provided high information and adequate discrimination, which allowed for better detection of average and high levels of coronaphobia in the older adult population. However, the CAS did not show evidence of being strictly invariant between older adults aged 60–65 years and 66–86 years. The CAS showed significant correlations with anxiety (r = .72; [95%CI: .66, .87] p < .01) and depression (r = .53; [95%CI: .43, .76] p < .01). CONCLUSION: The CAS in Spanish shows evidence of validity based on internal structure, convergent and divergent validity, as well as an adequate reliability estimate to assess coronaphobia in older adults. The CAS can be used to detect average and high levels of coronaphobia in the older adult population.