Fear of COVID-19 and death anxiety: Polish adaptations of scales

Introduction
We aimed to adapt for the Polish language two scales for studies on the psychological consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic – The Fear of COVID-19 Scale (FCV-19S) by Ahorsu et al. and the Scale of Death Anxiety (SDA) by Cai et al.

Material and methods
Besides the FCV-19S and SDA, the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale HADS (Zigmond and Snaith), the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS-10) (Cohen et al.), the General Health Questionnaire GHQ-28 (Goldberg), and the Positive Orientation Scale P (Caprara et al.) were used in the study on 756 people aged 18-68 (M = 31.91, SD = 11.30) – 158 men and 598 women.

Results
Confirmatory factor analysis confirmed the one-dimensional structure of the Polish adaptation of FCV-19S, with satisfactory internal consistency and Cronbach’s α equal to 0.84. With regard to the Polish adaptation of the SDA, instead of the 4-factorial structure (as in the original tool), the analysis uncovered a three-factor structure: intrusions/thoughts, anxiety/emotions, and avoidance. Cronbach’s α coefficient for the entire scale was 0.92. Both tools were significantly, positively correlated with anxiety, depression, and stress levels.

Conclusions
Polish adaptations of both tools are characterized by satisfactory psychometric properties, which enable their use in research and clinical practice.