*2.2. Criteria of Patient Eligibility*

Patients were considered eligible to be enrolled in the study on the basis of the following inclusion criteria: (1) Adult male and female patients, admitted to the coronary care unit (CCU) for chest pain and subsequently ascertained STEMI. Exclusion criteria were as follows: (1) Severe systemic diseases; (2) Systemic inflammatory disease; (3) Patients refusing or unable to supply written informed consent.

#### *2.3. Fear of COVID-19 Scale*

The FCV-19S is a self-report measure aimed at assessing fear of COVID-19, and the scale is made up of seven items related to emotional (Items 1, 2, 4, 5) and symptomatic (Items 3, 6, 7) fear reactions to the pandemic [4].

Specifically, patients were asked to answer the following items:

1. I am most afraid of coronavirus;


Participants were asked to respond on a five-item Likert-type scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree), with responses including "strongly disagree" (1), "disagree" (2) "neutral" (3), "agree" (4) and "strongly agree" (5). The minimum possible score for each question is 1, and the maximum is 5. The total score ranges between 7 and 35, with a higher sum score indicating greater fear of COVID-19. The measure showed appropriate internal validity (Cronbach's alpha of 0.82) and was also found to correlate with anxiety and depression, as assessed by the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale and the Perceived Vulnerability to Disease Scale. Previous studies [4–8] reported FCV-196ì5 validation in different general population cohorts.

In order to assess anxiety and depression for COVID-19, all enrolled patients completed a COVID fear questionnaire at hospital admission as part of routine clinical practice. The survey took around 10–15 min to complete.

Informed consent was obtained from each patient (or their relatives where necessary), and the study was approved by the local Ethics Committee (number 19214, 11 February 2021).
