Ballou Sarah, Gray Sarah, Palsson Olafur S
Department of Medicine, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, 330 Brookline Avenue, Boston, MA, 02215, USA.
Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital, 300 First Avenue, Charlestown, MA, 02129, USA.
Brain Behav Immun Health. 2020 Dec;9:100161. doi: 10.1016/j.bbih.2020.100161. Epub 2020 Oct 17.
The COVID-19 pandemic represents the most universal shared stressor for the general United States (U.S) population in many decades. Due to the unprecedented circumstances of COVID-19, no existing questionnaires can comprehensively measure the multi-faceted psychological effects attributable to this health crisis. This study aimed to validate a measure for that purpose.
A 16-item questionnaire, the Pandemic Emotional Impact Scale (PEIS), was designed and subjected to initial validation in an internet survey completed by a nationally representative sample of 1500 adults living in the U.S. This survey was completed between May 18 and May 30, 2020, during the height of the pandemic's impact on society.
The PEIS demonstrated excellent internal consistency (Cronbach's α = 0.94) and Guttman split-half reliability (0.95). Exploratory factor analysis suggested two sub-scales -- emotional impact and pragmatic worries -- but these were highly correlated with the overall scale score suggesting that the total score can be used in most cases. The PEIS demonstrated good concurrent validity via robust positive correlations with anxiety, depression and stress, and negative correlations with quality of life and happiness. Criterion validity was supported by the finding that individuals who reported employment loss or loss of income due to the pandemic, had experienced COVID-19 infection in their household, or knew somebody personally who died from the pandemic, had elevated scores on the PEIS.
The PEIS questionnaire is a reliable and valid instrument that addresses a significant unmet need for a research instrument that can comprehensively measure pandemic-related effects on the emotional wellbeing of individuals in the U.S population.
新冠疫情是数十年来美国普通民众面临的最普遍的共同压力源。由于新冠疫情的情况前所未有的特殊，现有的调查问卷都无法全面衡量这场健康危机所带来的多方面心理影响。本研究旨在为此目的验证一项测量工具。
设计了一份包含16个条目的问卷——大流行情绪影响量表（PEIS），并在美国1500名具有全国代表性的成年人样本完成的一项网络调查中进行初步验证。该调查于2020年5月18日至5月30日期间完成，当时正值疫情对社会影响最严重的时候。
PEIS表现出出色的内部一致性（克朗巴哈α系数 = 0.94）和古特曼折半信度（0.95）。探索性因素分析表明存在两个子量表——情绪影响和实际担忧——但它们与总体量表得分高度相关，这表明在大多数情况下可以使用总分。通过与焦虑、抑郁和压力的强烈正相关以及与生活质量和幸福感的负相关，PEIS表现出良好的同时效度。标准效度得到以下发现的支持：报告因疫情失去工作或收入、家中有人感染新冠病毒或认识因疫情去世的人的个体，其在PEIS上的得分较高。
PEIS问卷是一种可靠且有效的工具，满足了一项重要的未满足需求，即需要一种能够全面衡量疫情对美国人群个体情绪健康相关影响的研究工具。
