Psychometric Evaluation of the Whiteley Index-8 in Chinese Outpatients in General Hospitals
Background: Excessive and persistent health anxiety is a common and disabling but often unrecognized illness. Therefore, screening patients for health anxiety is recommended in primary care. The aim of the present study was to examine the psychometric properties of an updated version of the eight-it...
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2021-07-01
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| Series: | Frontiers in Psychology |
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| Online Access: | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.557662/full |
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| author | Yixiao Chen Per Fink Jing Wei Anne-Kristin Toussaint Lan Zhang Yaoyin Zhang Hua Chen Xiquan Ma Wentian Li Jie Ren Wei Lu Rainer Leonhart Kurt Fritzsche Heng Wu |
| author_facet | Yixiao Chen Per Fink Jing Wei Anne-Kristin Toussaint Lan Zhang Yaoyin Zhang Hua Chen Xiquan Ma Wentian Li Jie Ren Wei Lu Rainer Leonhart Kurt Fritzsche Heng Wu |
| author_sort | Yixiao Chen |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Background: Excessive and persistent health anxiety is a common and disabling but often unrecognized illness. Therefore, screening patients for health anxiety is recommended in primary care. The aim of the present study was to examine the psychometric properties of an updated version of the eight-item Whiteley Index (WI-8) among outpatients in general hospitals in China.Methods: The presented data were derived from a multicenter cross-sectional study. The Chinese version of the WI-8 was administered to a total of 696 outpatients. Cronbach's alpha was used to evaluate the internal consistency of the scale. The validity of the scale was evaluated based on factor analysis and correlation analyses. To assess the discriminant ability, receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis was conducted.Results: Cronbach's alpha was 0.937, and it decreased (0.925) after deleting the new 8th item. Factor analysis extracted one factor accounting for 69.2% of the variance. Moderate correlations were found (0.414–0.662) between the WI-8 and General Anxiety Disorder (GAD-7), Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9), Patient Health Questionnaire-15 (PHQ-15) and Somatic Symptom Disorder B-criteria (SSD-12). The ROC curve indicated excellent discriminatory ability to discriminate among patients with health anxiety (AUC = 0.822).Conclusions: The new WI-8 version is a reliable and valid tool to screen for health anxiety in general hospital patients. We recommend the WI-8 as a useful screening tool for health anxiety. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-22T11:08:10Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-b4288a45827b474282dd4986ccc9ee22 |
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| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-22T11:08:10Z |
| publishDate | 2021-07-01 |
| publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Frontiers in Psychology |
| spelling | doaj.art-b4288a45827b474282dd4986ccc9ee222022-12-21T18:28:14ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Psychology1664-10782021-07-011210.3389/fpsyg.2021.557662557662Psychometric Evaluation of the Whiteley Index-8 in Chinese Outpatients in General HospitalsYixiao Chen0Per Fink1Jing Wei2Anne-Kristin Toussaint3Lan Zhang4Yaoyin Zhang5Hua Chen6Xiquan Ma7Wentian Li8Jie Ren9Wei Lu10Rainer Leonhart11Kurt Fritzsche12Heng Wu13Department of Psychosomatic Medicine, Shanghai Tongji Hospital, Tongji University School of Medicine, Shanghai, ChinaThe Research Clinic for Functional Disorders and Psychosomatics, Aarhus University Hospital, Aarhus University, Aarhus, DenmarkDepartment of Psychological Medicine, Peking Union Medical College Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences & Peking Union Medical College, Beijing, ChinaDepartment of Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg, GermanyMental Health Centre, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, ChinaDepartment of Psychosomatic Medicine, Sichuan Provincial People's Hospital, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, ChinaDepartment of Psychological Medicine, Zhong Shan Hospital, Fudan University, Shanghai, ChinaDepartment of Psychosomatic Medicine, School of Medicine, Dongfang Hospital, Tongji University, Shanghai, ChinaDepartment of Clinical Psychology, Wuhan Mental Health Center, Wuhan, China0Department of Rehabilitation, General Hospital of Jincheng Anthracite Coal Mining Group Co. Ltd., Jincheng, China1Department of Psychosomatic Medicine, Beijing Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Capital University, Beijing, China2Institute of Psychology, University of Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany3Department of Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy, Faculty of Medicine, Medical Center – University of Freiburg, Freiburg, GermanyDepartment of Psychosomatic Medicine, Shanghai Tongji Hospital, Tongji University School of Medicine, Shanghai, ChinaBackground: Excessive and persistent health anxiety is a common and disabling but often unrecognized illness. Therefore, screening patients for health anxiety is recommended in primary care. The aim of the present study was to examine the psychometric properties of an updated version of the eight-item Whiteley Index (WI-8) among outpatients in general hospitals in China.Methods: The presented data were derived from a multicenter cross-sectional study. The Chinese version of the WI-8 was administered to a total of 696 outpatients. Cronbach's alpha was used to evaluate the internal consistency of the scale. The validity of the scale was evaluated based on factor analysis and correlation analyses. To assess the discriminant ability, receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis was conducted.Results: Cronbach's alpha was 0.937, and it decreased (0.925) after deleting the new 8th item. Factor analysis extracted one factor accounting for 69.2% of the variance. Moderate correlations were found (0.414–0.662) between the WI-8 and General Anxiety Disorder (GAD-7), Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9), Patient Health Questionnaire-15 (PHQ-15) and Somatic Symptom Disorder B-criteria (SSD-12). The ROC curve indicated excellent discriminatory ability to discriminate among patients with health anxiety (AUC = 0.822).Conclusions: The new WI-8 version is a reliable and valid tool to screen for health anxiety in general hospital patients. We recommend the WI-8 as a useful screening tool for health anxiety.https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.557662/fullWhiteley Indexhealth anxietyreliabilityvalidityROC |
| spellingShingle | Yixiao Chen Per Fink Jing Wei Anne-Kristin Toussaint Lan Zhang Yaoyin Zhang Hua Chen Xiquan Ma Wentian Li Jie Ren Wei Lu Rainer Leonhart Kurt Fritzsche Heng Wu Psychometric Evaluation of the Whiteley Index-8 in Chinese Outpatients in General Hospitals Frontiers in Psychology Whiteley Index health anxiety reliability validity ROC |
| title | Psychometric Evaluation of the Whiteley Index-8 in Chinese Outpatients in General Hospitals |
| title_full | Psychometric Evaluation of the Whiteley Index-8 in Chinese Outpatients in General Hospitals |
| title_fullStr | Psychometric Evaluation of the Whiteley Index-8 in Chinese Outpatients in General Hospitals |
| title_full_unstemmed | Psychometric Evaluation of the Whiteley Index-8 in Chinese Outpatients in General Hospitals |
| title_short | Psychometric Evaluation of the Whiteley Index-8 in Chinese Outpatients in General Hospitals |
| title_sort | psychometric evaluation of the whiteley index 8 in chinese outpatients in general hospitals |
| topic | Whiteley Index health anxiety reliability validity ROC |
| url | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.557662/full |
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