Brazilian Adaptation of the Coronavirus Anxiety Scale: A Psychometric Investigation of a Measure of Coronaphobia. (February 2023)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Padovan-Neto, Fernando E.; Lee, Sherman A.; Guimarães, Rayanne Poletti; Godoy, Lívea Dornela; Costa, Hugo Bononi; Zerbini, Francisco Luiz Silva; Fukusima, Sérgio S.
• Is Part Of: Omega. Volume 86:Number 3(2023)
• Page Start: 769
• Page End: 787
• Publication Date: 2023-02
• Subjects: coronavirus -- COVID-19 -- anxiety -- Brazil -- coronaphobia; Death -- Psychological aspects -- Periodicals; Bereavement -- Psychological aspects -- Periodicals; Death -- Social aspects -- Periodicals; Suicide -- Periodicals; 306.9
• DOI: 10.1177/0030222821991325
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0030-2228

Abstract

This study examined the psychometric properties of a Brazilian adapted version of the Coronavirus Anxiety Scale (CAS-BR) in a sample of adults in Brazil. Confirmatory factor analyses demonstrated that the CAS-BR produces a reliable (α = .84), unidimensional construct whose structure was shown to be invariant across gender, race, and age. However, some items of the CAS-BR were stronger indicators of the coronavirus anxiety construct for women and younger adults. Although the CAS-BR demonstrated evidence of discrimination ability for functional impairment (AUC = .77), Youden indexes were low to identify a clinical cut-score. Construct validity was demonstrated with correlations between CAS-BR scores and measures of functional impairment, generalized anxiety, and depression. Exploratory analyses revealed that CAS-BR total scores were higher among women and participants with a history of anxiety disorder. These findings are consistent with previous investigations and support the validity of CAS-BR for measuring coronavirus anxiety with Brazilian adults.