A Cross-Country Examination on the Fear of COVID-19 and the Sense of Loneliness during the First Wave of COVID-19 Outbreak

  1. Gianluca Lo Coco
  2. Ambra Gentile
  3. Ksenija Bosnar
  4. Ivana Milovanović
  5. Antonino Bianco
  6. Patrik Drid
  7. Saša Pišot

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Abstract

The aim of the current study is to examine gender, age. and cross-country differences in fear of COVID-19 and sense of loneliness during the lockdown, by comparing people from those countries with a high rate of infections and deaths (e.g., Spain and Italy) and from countries with a mild spread of infection (e.g., Croatia, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina). A total of 3876 participants (63% female) completed an online survey on “Everyday life practices in COVID-19 time” in April 2020, including measures of fear of COVID-19 and loneliness. Males and females of all age groups in countries suffering from the powerful impact of the COVID-19 pandemic reported greater fear of COVID-19 and sense of loneliness. In less endangered countries, females and the elderly reported more symptoms than males and the young; in Spanish and Italian samples, the pattern of differences is considerably more complex. Future research should thoroughly examine different age and gender groups. The analysis of emotional well-being in groups at risk of mental health issues may help to lessen the long term social and economic costs due to the COVID-19 outbreak.

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  1. Version published to 10.3390/ijerph18052586
  2. ScreenIT

    SciScore for 10.1101/2020.11.24.20237586: (What is this?)

    Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.

    Table 1: Rigor

    Institutional Review Board StatementConsent: The study was conducted in accordance with the ethical standards of the Declaration of Helsinki, and all participants signed statements of informed consent to participate in this study.
    IRB: The Ethics Committee of University of BLINDED FOR REVIEW approved this study.
    Randomizationnot detected.
    Blindingnot detected.
    Power Analysisnot detected.
    Sex as a biological variableParticipants and data collection: The sample consisted of 3876 participants (1422 males, 2442 females) from 7 European countries (Italy, Spain, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia), whose age was comprised between 18 and 82 years (M= 31.94; SD=12.02).

    Table 2: Resources

    Software and Algorithms
    SentencesResources
    The canonical discriminant analysis of groups defined by age, gender, and country was performed on the total result of The Fear of COVID-19 Scale and items from the Three-Item Loneliness Scale using the Discriminant Function Analysis procedure described by Jennrich [32] in STATISTICA (version 13.0, TIBCO, USA).
    STATISTICA
    suggested: (STATISTICA , RRID:SCR_014213)

    Results from OddPub: We did not detect open data. We also did not detect open code. Researchers are encouraged to share open data when possible (see Nature blog).

    Results from LimitationRecognizer: We detected the following sentences addressing limitations in the study:
    Strengths and limitations of the study: The main strength of the current study is that we examined the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak on fear and sense of loneliness in a large sample of population from different European countries. This study also has several limitations: first, well-educated people are more likely to participate in an on-line survey than less-educated, as confirmed by Smith [41]. Moreover, people from low socioeconomic status might not be equipped with the Internet and IT technology. Finally, using self-report measures could not reflect people’s real opinions and feelings, due to the social desirability [42].

    Results from TrialIdentifier: No clinical trial numbers were referenced.

    Results from Barzooka: We did not find any issues relating to the usage of bar graphs.

    Results from JetFighter: We did not find any issues relating to colormaps.

    Results from rtransparent:
    • Thank you for including a conflict of interest statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
    • Thank you for including a funding statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
    • No protocol registration statement was detected.

    About SciScore

    SciScore is an automated tool that is designed to assist expert reviewers by finding and presenting formulaic information scattered throughout a paper in a standard, easy to digest format. SciScore checks for the presence and correctness of RRIDs (research resource identifiers), and for rigor criteria such as sex and investigator blinding. For details on the theoretical underpinning of rigor criteria and the tools shown here, including references cited, please follow this link.

  3. Version published to 10.1101/2020.11.24.20237586v1 on medRxiv