Health anxiety, hypochondriasis, and the anxiety disorders

Abstract

Although clinical observations suggest that health-related anxiety is present, to some extent, in a number of anxiety disorders, this relationship has not been examined empirically. The present study therefore utilized the Short Health Anxiety Inventory (SHAI) to elucidate the structure of such symptoms among patients with anxiety disorders and to empirically investigate the presence of health anxiety in various anxiety disorders. Confirmatory factor analysis yielded equivalent support for either a 2-factor or 3-factor model of the SHAI's latent structure. The measure demonstrated good reliability, convergent validity, and discriminant validity. Comparison of SHAI scores across groups of patients with various anxiety disorders revealed elevated levels of health anxiety among patients with hypochondriasis and panic disorder relative to those with other anxiety disorders. Receiver operating characteristic analyses supported the utility of the SHAI as a diagnostic tool for screening patients with hypochondriasis utilizing empirically derived cut scores. Findings are discussed in terms of cognitive-behavioral models of anxiety disorders.