- Published
- 01 November 2025
- Journal article
The impact of fear of COVID-19 on mood and health during the first COVID-19 lockdown period in The Netherlands
- Authors
- Source
- COVID
Full text
Abstract
Background:
Fear of COVID-19 has been associated with adverse mental and physical health outcomes, yet evidence from The Netherlands is limited. This study investigated associations between fear of COVID-19, mood, quality of life, immune fitness, and related health variables during the first Dutch national lockdown and identified key predictors of fear.
Methods:
In June–July 2020, n = 1020 Dutch adults completed an online survey assessing demographics, personality, mental resilience, pain sensitivity, pain catastrophizing, alcohol use, immune fitness, and mood. Retrospective ratings were provided for the pre-pandemic period (January–March 2020) and the first lockdown (March–May 2020). Fear of COVID-19 was measured using a modified Fear of COVID-19 Scale.
Results:
Overall, 13.2% of participants reported significant fear of COVID-19, which was associated with poorer mood, reduced quality of life, lower immune fitness, more severe COVID-19 symptoms, greater pain sensitivity, and higher levels of pain catastrophizing. Regression analysis explained 19.6% of the variance, with pre-pandemic anxiety (8.7%) and poorer immune fitness (3.4%) as the strongest predictors of fear of COVID-19, followed by lower psychoticism, lower mental resilience, older age, greater helplessness, and greater extraversion.
Discussion:
These findings suggest that a minority experienced high levels of fear of COVID-19 with substantial consequences, including negative effects on mood, immune fitness, and quality of life. The strong association with pre-existing anxiety and immune fitness highlights the need for early identification and targeted interventions for vulnerable groups to reduce psychological and physical health impacts in future public health crises.
Rights
This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
Cite as
Kiani, P., Hendriksen, P., Dijkgraaf, D., Merlo, A., Zijlstra, M., Garssen, J., Scholey, A., Verster, J. & Bruce, G. 2025, 'The impact of fear of COVID-19 on mood and health during the first COVID-19 lockdown period in The Netherlands', COVID, 5(11), article no: 186. https://doi.org/10.3390/covid5110186