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. 2019 Feb 28;53(1):49-60.
doi: 10.12740/PP/81799. Epub 2019 Feb 28.

Cyberchondria and its measurement. The Polish adaptation and psychometric properties of the Cyberchondria Severity Scale CSS-PL

[Article in English, Polish]
Beata Bajcar  1 , Jolanta Babiak  1 , Agnieszka Olchowska-Kotala  2
Affiliations
Free article

Cyberchondria and its measurement. The Polish adaptation and psychometric properties of the Cyberchondria Severity Scale CSS-PL

[Article in English, Polish]
Beata Bajcar et al. Psychiatr Pol. .
Free article

Abstract

Objectives: The aim of this paper is a presentation of the adaptation process of the Cyberchondria Severity Scale (SCC) to measure cyberchondria and verification of reliability and construct validities of the test in the Polish population.

Methods: The study included 380 participants (203 women and 177 men) aged 19-68 (M = 26.5; SD = 11.1). The CSS-PL was used to measure cyberchondria, the Short Health Anxiety Inventory (SHAI) for measuring hypochondria, and the Dimensional Obsessive-Compulsive Scale (DOCS) to verify obsessive-compulsive tendencies.

Results: Four-factor structure of cyberchondria measured with the CSS-PL was supported. Internal consistency indices of the CSS-PL were between 0.87 and 0.95, test-retest reliability results were 0.58-0.76. This study demonstrated construct validity of the CSS-PL via its correlations with health anxiety (r = 0.31-0.56) and obsessive-compulsive symptoms (r = 0.17-0.48).

Conclusions: The CSS-PL is an initial standardized version of an instrument for measuring cyberchondria and meets the psychometric criteria of reliability and validity for psychological testing tools. The CSS-PL may be used both in diagnostic and scientific research.

Keywords: cyberchondria; health anxiety; scale adaptation.

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