Abstract
Introduction. Disease phobia may impose distressing manifestations along with compromised quality of life, particularly in young age. COVID-19 caused substantial psychological concerns in general population which required the attention of health authorities to address the issue as soon as possible. Objective. This study was aimed to determine COVID-19 phobia in Pakistani youth during the current pandemic. Method. A cross-sectional study was conducted to ascertain the extent of fear of COVID-19 among university students in Lahore, Pakistan using the COVID-19 Phobia Scale (C19P-S). Psychological, somatic, social, and economic factors were ascertained among students. The relationship of demographics with the phobia score was de-termined through appropriate statistical tests. Result. This study included 374 students with a male prepon-derance (64.7%). The mean C19P-S score was 59.08 +/- 14.44 (IQR: 50 -70), with no significant difference among demographics except gender (male 57.65 +/- 14.77 vs female 61.70 +/- 13.47; p = .009). The mean psy-chological, psycho-somatic, economic, and social subscale scores were 19.59 +/- 5.00 (25th percentile = 16 and 75th percentile = 24), 12.29 +/- 4.56 (25th percentile = 10 and 75th percentile = 15), 11.22 +/- 3.67 (25th percentile = 8 and 75th percentile = 14) and 15.97 +/- 4.04 (25th percentile = 13.75 and 75th percentile = 19), respectively. Male students had a significantly lower score on social and psychological subscales than females (p < .05). Discussion and conclusion. One fourth of the students achieved a fear score > 70 on C19P-S. These results indicate the need of dire maneuvers for reducing corona-phobia among university students.