Fear of COVID-19 infection, as a mediator between exposure to news and mental health, in the Peruvian population

Abstract

Introduction: In this COVID-19 pandemic, protective measures against the disease and government-imposed policies should be known. However, the media also report on deaths and health service shortages, but their impact on the mental health of the population is ignored. Objective: To determine whether fear of COVID-19 infection acts as a mediator between exposure to news about the pandemic and mental health in the Peruvian population. Method: Explanatory study with observable variables in which 541 persons selected by non-probabilistic sampling participated. They responded to a sociodemographic file and the following scales: Mental Health Inventory-5 (MHI-5) and Fear of COVID-19 Scale. Data were processed using IBM SPSS Statistics 25 and Macro PROCESS for SPSS programs; linear regression and bootstrapping of 10 000 simulations were used. Results: The number of hours watching and/or listening to covid-19 information is a good predictor of the COVID-19 fear mediator variable (β=, 75; t = 3.77, p