COVID-19 Phobia among Korean, Chinese, and Japanese students: An international comparative study

This study aimed to identify the characteristic differences and potential contributing factors of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) phobia between undergraduate and graduate students in Korea, Japan, and China. We used the online survey tool, we retained 460 responses from Korea, 248 responses from Japan, and 788 responses from China for analysis. We performed the statistical analysis; ANOVA F-test and Multiple linear regression. We visualized the results of these calculations using GraphPad PRISM 9. The mean COVID-19 phobia score was highest in Japan at 50.5 points. Psychological fear was identically prevalent in Japan and China, at an average of 17.3 points. Psychosomatic fear was highest in Japan at 9.2 points. Further, economic fear was highest in Korea at 13 points, whereas social fear was highest in China at 13.1 points. In Korea, COVID-19 phobia scores were significantly higher among women than in men. In Japan, COVID-19 phobia scores were significantly higher in individuals who complied with social distancing mandates. In China, a lack of previous experience with self-administered testing kits was associated with significantly lower phobia scores. Individuals who were avoiding crowded places had significantly higher scores in 3 countries. This implies that the students knew that it was necessary to comply with COVID-19 preventive behaviors to prevent infections. The findings of this study could be used as a reference when establishing an approach strategy to reduce COVID-19 phobia among Chinese, Japanese, and Korean students.