AUTHOR=Lapeyre-Rivera André , Javier-Murillo Nair , Perea-Flórez Francisco , Gamonal Bryan , Velásquez-Rimachi Víctor , Alva-Díaz Carlos , Ahmed Oli , Chung Seockhoon 

TITLE=Validation of the Peruvian Spanish Version of the Stress and Anxiety to Viral Epidemics-6 Scale to Measure Viral Anxiety of Medical Students During COVID-19

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Psychiatry

VOLUME=Volume 13 - 2022

YEAR=2022

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychiatry/articles/10.3389/fpsyt.2022.876379

DOI=10.3389/fpsyt.2022.876379

ISSN=1664-0640

ABSTRACT=Introduction: The COVID-19 pandemic has created academic problems for Peruvian medical students leading to anxiety and depression. Hence, validated scales, such as the Stress and Anxiety to Viral Epidemics-6 items scale (SAVE-6), are required to identify and propose interventions to improve mental health. We aimed to perform a psychometric validation of the Peruvian version of SAVE-6 on medical students at the National University of San Marcos during the COVID-19 pandemic in Peru, in 2022.

Methods: A total of 260 students participated in an online survey in January 2022. We collected sociodemographic characteristics and classified psychiatric symptoms using SAVE-6, the Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 items (GAD-7) scale, and the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9). We performed confirmatory and parallel factor analysis to examine the validity of the Peruvian Spanish version of SAVE-6.

Results: We explored the reliability and validity of SAVE-6 and SAVE-6 after excluding item 5, since factor loading of item 5 is too low.. Both scales showed good internal consistency (Cronbach’s α = .780 & .82 and McDonald’s Ω = .792 & .829, respectively). Furthermore, SAVE-6 after excluding item 5 showed good convergent validity with GAD-7 (r=0.224, p<0.001) and PHQ-9 (r=.217, p<0.001). Consequently, instead of the full SAVE-6, SAVE-6 excluding item 5 proved to be reliable and valid enough to assess the anxiety of Peruvian medical students during the pandemic.

Conclusion:  The Peruvian Spanish SAVE-6 scale excluding item 5, rather than the full SAVE-6, can be applied to measure viral anxiety of medical students in Peru with good validity and reliability.