AUTHOR=Ranjbaran Soheila , Chollou Khalil Maleki , Abedi-Nerbin Salar , Babazadeh Towhid 

TITLE=Predictors of fear of COVID-19 in a low-income country: health literacy is important

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Psychology

VOLUME=15

YEAR=2024

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1394957

DOI=10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1394957

ISSN=1664-1078

ABSTRACT=<sec id="sec1"><title>Introduction</title><p>Excessive fear of a threatening condition or situation can result in individuals engaging in unhealthy behaviors, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. Identifying the influential factors of fear can be effective in designing and implementing health-center interventions to control and reduce the COVID-19 pandemic.</p></sec><sec id="sec2"><title>Methods</title><p>This study was a cross-sectional design implemented in Iran in 2022. Participants were adults 18–65 years of age recruited randomly from primary Health Care Services Centers (HCSCs) by medical records (<italic>n</italic> = 380, 64.7% female, mean (SD) age 32.14 ± 10.98 years) in urban and rural areas of the county. The data collection included a demographic form, Fear of COVID-19 questionnaire, Perceived Barriers of COVID-19 preventive behaviors, Self-efficacy, and Health Literacy for Iranian Adults (HELIA) questionnaire.</p></sec><sec id="sec3"><title>Results</title><p>It was determined that the fear of COVID-19 showed statistically significant differences according to gender (<italic>p</italic>-value = 0.013), education level (<italic>p</italic>-value = 0.001), and job status (<italic>p</italic>-value = 0.001). According to the hierarchical linear regression, educational level (<italic>p</italic>-value = 0.001; β = 0.665), job (β = 0.126; <italic>p</italic>-value = 0.018), self-efficacy (<italic>p</italic>-value = 0.015; β = 0.103), and Health Literacy (HL) (<italic>p</italic>-value = 0.001; β = 0.446) were significant predictors of fear of COVID-19. Also, among variables, educational level (<italic>p</italic>-value = 0.001; β = 0.665) and HL (<italic>p</italic>-value = 0.001; β = 0.446) were the most important predictors for fear of COVID-19.</p></sec><sec id="sec4"><title>Discussion</title><p>This research shows that HL has a potential and determinative role in controlling fear of COVID-19. The findings can help healthy policymakers and healthcare providers design HL-based programs in similar epidemics and pandemic situations.</p></sec>