Effect of Fear, Concern, and of Risk Factors for Complicated Covid-19 on Self-Care in People in Pre-elderly and Elderly Stages.

Objectives: The work sought to determine the effect of the risk factors, fear, and concern on self-care regarding COVID-19 in people in pre-elderly and elderly stages.

Methods: Correlational-predictive study, gathered through convenience sampling. The study applied the scale of fear of COVID-19 (Huarcaya et al.), the scale of concern about COVID-19 (Ruíz et al.,), and the scale of self-care during the COVID-19 confinement (Martínez et al.,). Descriptive and inferential statistics were applied as the mediation model based on regression.

Results: The study had the participation of 333 people, with the majority being women (73.9%). Correlation was found between self-care with the scores from the scale of fear (r = -0.133, p <0.05) and of concern (r = -0.141, p<0.05) regarding COVID-19. The direct effect of the model was c= 0.16, [95% BCa CI = -0.28, -0.09]. The standardized value for the indirect effect was estimated as c = -0.14, [95% BCa CI= -0.23,-0.09]), which shows existence of a 14.0% effect of the mediating variable on self-care conducts in the prediction model.

Conclusions: A direct effect exists of risk factors for COVID-19 complication on self-care, mediated by concern and fear, besides explaining by 14% the self-care conducts for COVID-19. Recommendation is made to address other emotional variables to consider if these increase the prediction.