Psychometric Properties of Coronavirus Anxiety Scale in Iranian Population

Background: One of the most common mental health-related issues related to the COVID-19 pandemic is high levels of distress and anxiety due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Psychological well being and conservation of the general population are utterly significant components of facing COVID-19 pandemic. It seems that despite the availability of highly standardized tools to investigate COVID- 19-related anxiety, the Coronavirus Anxiety Scale (CAS) can be helpful in different populations due to its short design. Objectives: The present study aimed to assess the psychometric properties of the Persian (Iranian) version of the Coronavirus Anxiety Scale (P-CAS). Methods: In this web-based cross-sectional study, 305 individuals (184 females vs. 121 males) participated. All participants were evaluated by five questionnaires, including the P-CAS, COVID Stress Scales (CSS), the Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale-21 (DASS-21), Whiteley Index (WI), and Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS). Cronbach’s alpha, confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), and correlation coefficient were used for data analysis using SPSS 23 and AMOS-23 software. Results: The results of CFA demonstrated that the factor structure of the P-CAS was good, and the scale had an appropriate internal consistency (= 0.80). A satisfactory convergent validity was shown due to positive correlations of the P-CAS with the related scales. Test-retest reliability of P-CAS was also satisfactory (ICC = 0.95). Conclusions: According to our results, the P-CAS is a valid and reliable instrument to evaluate the severity of dysfunctional anxiety due to COVID-19 pandemic.