Factors explaining the fear of being infected with COVID‐19

Abstract Background The prevalence of COVID‐19 has a social and economic impact on people, leaving them distressed and fearful of getting infected. Objective To determine the variables attributable to the fear of contracting COVID‐19. Design This is a quantitative study based on an online cross‐sectional self‐administered survey in Chile between 10 July 2020 and 10 August 2020. Setting and participants A sample of 531, comprising over 18‐year‐old participants from middle‐ and high‐income levels, was selected. Outcome measures Estimations were obtained using a probit regression model with marginal effects. Results Fear prevailed mainly in women. It has a positive relationship with variables such as chronic illnesses, infectious family or relatives, reduction in economic activity and perception of bad government response to a pandemic. Fear has a negative relationship with knowledge about COVID‐19, education level and ageing. Moreover, those who consider socioeconomic impact less important than health care do not fear a COVID‐19 infection. Discussionand conclusion The socioeconomic and health aspects help predict fears. Thus, the government should prioritize these variables in implementing policies. The government's credibility and communication systems can also reduce fears of contracting COVID‐19. Patient or public contribution A pilot focus group of COVID‐19–recuperated individuals and some members of our interest groups were consulted in the design stage of the study; this helped in constructing the survey questions. Additionally, three independent individuals volunteered to read and comment on the draft manuscript.

| CERDA AND GARCÍA menacing stimulus. Therefore, the longer the pandemic lasts, the greater the fears that people may face, affecting their socioeconomic well-being and mental health. However, in some cases, the longer it takes to find a solution to the pandemic, the more people will not be inclined to take adequate measures to avoid contagious behaviour (social distancing, washing hands and quarantine compliance), because they are motivated to act not only for health-care issues but also for social and economic reasons (income generation, human relationships or simply contempt with authority). This situation is evident when we observe the second and third pandemic wave around many countries in the globe where people have not received enough health care.
Comparing the pandemic situation a month and a half after the the existing situation when we realized this study (19 July 2020), the 10 while the cases and deaths have increased by 11 12 The number of un-ployment level in Chile between 2010 and 2020. Moreover, from people has increased significantly. Specifically, the number of inresidential properties, saturation of the health-care system, quality of government response, loss of employment, financial loss, number of infected people, trust in people and/or institutions are some of the factors that may strongly influence people's well-being and their fears of contracting the disease.
when there was no certainty about a vaccine and its characteristics.
The media coverage may continue to provide information about contagious and perished people.
The health economics literature is primarily concerned with determining the willingness to pay for a vaccine and determining individuals' preferences for a vaccine under different modalities of effectiveness and side-effects. The preferences and the willingness to pay for a vaccine could express an individual´s fears of getting infected. 1,8,[18][19][20][21]   affected by the COVID-19 pandemic ; that is, women may be more afraid of contracting the virus.
Our study corroborates other studies that mention that the worries and fear of getting COVID-19 are influenced not only by 1 the level of fear has increased 0 the level of fear has not increased ∀ i = 1, 2, … , n. The existence of chronic sickness and family infectivity is also a predictor of fear in our study. This finding is consistent with other studies, which found that increased fear was related to perceived risk for loved ones and health anxiety, fear of becoming infected and fear of getting in contact with contaminated objects. The impact of having family members ill with symptomatic COVID-19 affects the perception of the severity of the disease in individuals, generating greater fear of being infected due to its impacts not only on health but also on their socioeconomic environment.
We also found that fear is inversely proportional to age: it decreases when age increases. Despite adult people being reported to be at a higher risk, we found that they are less fearful of contracting the disease than young people. Some authors propose health literacy interventions in older people to promote healthy behaviours.
However, we suggest that this attention to literacy should be given to young people because they tend to be more fearful than adult  -but there are ways to slow it down. The Conversation; March, 2020. https://theco nvers ation.com/fear-can-sprea d-from-perso nto-perso n-faste r-than-the-coron aviru s-but-there -are-ways-to-slo