Gómez-Salgado, JuanAllande-Cussó, ReginaRodríguez-Domínguez, CarmenDomínguez-Salas, SaraCamacho-Martín, SelenaRomero Ruiz, AdolfoRuiz-Frutos, Carlos2025-01-072025-01-072021https://hdl.handle.net/10668/26553The emergence of the new severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2, which causes COVID-19 disease, has been a major public health challenge and an increase in the feeling of uncertainty of the population, who is also experiencing an increase in levels of anxiety and fear regarding the COVID-19 disease. The objective of the study was the construct and criterion validation of the Escala de evaluación de la Ansiedad y MIedo a COVID-19 (AMICO, for its acronym in Spanish) to measure both constructs in the general Spanish population. Descriptive study of psychometric validation. A field study was carried out to execute univariate and bivariate analyses, in addition to the exploratory and confirmatory factorial analysis of the scale. For the criteria validity study, the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) and sensitivity and specificity values were calculated. The study sample was composed of 1036 subjects over 18 years of age, who resided in Spain, where 56.3% were women with a mean age of 48.11 years (SD = 15.13). The study of construct validity reported two factors and 16 items, with a Cronbach's alpha value of 0.92. The scale was concurrently valid with the used gold standard and obtained sensitivity values of 90.48% and specificity values of 76%. The AMICO scale is valid and reliable for assessing the level of anxiety and fear of COVID-19 in the adult Spanish population and is highly sensitive.enAttribution-NonCommercial 4.0 Internationalhttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/COVID-19Fearanxietyinstrument developmentmental healthpublic healthAdolescentAdultAnxietyCOVID-19Cross-Sectional StudiesFearFemaleHumansMiddle AgedReproducibility of ResultsSARS-CoV-2research article34698544open access10.1177/003685042110502912047-7163PMC10306143https://doi.org/10.1177/00368504211050291https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10306143/pdf