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. 2011 May;25(4):612-4.
doi: 10.1016/j.janxdis.2011.01.011. Epub 2011 Feb 26.

Health anxiety: comparison of the latent structure in medical and non-medical samples

Nicole M Alberts  1 , Donald Sharpe, Melissa D Kehler, Heather D Hadjistavropoulos
Affiliations

Health anxiety: comparison of the latent structure in medical and non-medical samples

Nicole M Alberts et al. J Anxiety Disord. 2011 May.

Abstract

The Short Health Anxiety Inventory (SHAI; Salkovskis, Rimes, Warwick, & Clark, 2002) is a self-report measure designed to assess health anxiety in both medical and non-medical samples. The invariance of the factor structure across these samples has not been examined in the 14-item version of the SHAI. In the current study, the SHAI was completed by a community sample with no serious medical conditions (n=232) and a medical sample with multiple sclerosis (n=245). Factor analysis implied the same two-factor solution for both samples, with the two factors labelled: (1) Thought Intrusion, and (2) Fear of Illness. Item loadings were invariant across the medical and non-medical samples, but the two factors were more strongly correlated in the non-medical sample. Implications of the findings as well as directions for future research are discussed.

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