Fear of COVID-19, socio-demographic and vulnerability characteristics in adults from the North and South of Mexico

Abstract

Introduction: The COVID 19 pandemic continues to be an unprecedented public health problem worldwide for both sick and healthy people. Objective: Determine the association between the fear of COVID-19 with the socio-demographic characteristics and the status of vulnerability. Material and methods: Descriptive, cross-sectional and correlational study. Sample: 197 participants 18 or older who belong to community-care centers in Monterrey, Nuevo León and Minatitlan, Veracruz. Intentional sampling. Instrument used: Fear of COVID-19 scale. Data assessment was performed with SPSS version 22, using descriptive and inferential statistics. Results: Fear of COVID-19 was associated with the person’s sex, but not with the status of vulnerability and the other socio-demographic variables such as age, schooling, employment status, and place of residence. Conclusion: Based on the purpose of the study, it was found that only the sex variable was associated with fear of COVID-19. More men than women reported having less fear, which may explain the higher prevalence of this disease in this population group.