The CORPD had good internal consistency reliability and split-half reliability, and also had good structure validity, content validity and criterion correlation validity.
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The CORPD can be used in psychological distress evaluation for people in the COVID-19 affected countries and regions.
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The general public may have a common COVID-19 related psychological distress, including: suspicion, anxiety and fear.
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Our results also provide further insight for the future research for COVID-19 or other infectious diseases related mental health problems.
Abstract
COVID-19 is now spreading worldwide, and poses some public mental health problems which requires close attention. This study aims to develop a scale of COVID-19 related psychological distress in healthy public (CORPD) to assess the severity of psychological distress in uninfected healthy populations. We compiled a 14-item scale which contains two dimensions— Anxiety & fear and Suspicion —using the classical measurement theory. 652 Chinese citizens consented and completed a survey through an online questionnaire APP. The reliability test showed that the scale had good internal consistency reliability and Split-Half reliability, and the validity test showed that it had good structure validity, content validity and criterion correlation validity. This scale can be used to assess the psychological distress of people in China and in other COVID-19-hit regions and countries. It also provides a reference for future studies on COVID-19 or other respiratory infectious diseases related public mental health.
