By the purpose of the study, a questionnaire form was prepared using the literature [1 (link), 6 , 12 (link), 15 –24 ]. The questionnaire form consisted of two parts. The first part was including questions about the sociodemographic characteristics of individuals (age, gender, marital status, education level, family income, and childbearing status) and some factors that may be associated with health anxiety (presence of chronic disease with a physician diagnosis, presence of health insurance, mental and behavioral disorder symptoms, general health status, number of admissions to any health institution in the last p year, and hospitalization in the past 1 year). The second part was composed of The Short Health Anxiety Inventory (SHAI).
The SHAI was developed in 2002 by Salkovskis et al. [25 (link)]. The Turkish validity and reliability study of the inventory was conducted in 2013 by Aydemir et al. [5 (link)]. The inventory consists of 4-point Likert-scale (never=0 and always=3) 18 questions. The score that can be obtained from the inventory varies between 0 and 54 and it is accepted that the level of health anxiety increases as the score increases. In the Turkish validity and reliability study, the Crobach’s alpha coefficient showing the internal consistency of the scale was given as 0.918 [5 (link)].
During the study, individuals who admitted to primary healthcare institutions were informed about the subject and purpose of the study. Verbal consent was obtained from those who agreed to participate in the study. The previously prepared questionnaire forms were filled out by the researchers through the face-to-face interview method. This process took approximately 20–25 min.
In the study, the family income of individuals was evaluated as “high, medium, and low” according to their perceptions. General health status was evaluated as “good, medium, and bad” by questioning how people define their health status. Those who declared that they had been diagnosed with chronic disease by a physician before were accepted as “they have a physician-diagnosed chronic disease.” Likewise, the person’s state of having a mental and behavioral disorder (psychiatric illness) and experiencing symptoms of mental and behavioral disorders was also evaluated according to the person’s response to the relevant questions.
The SHAI was developed in 2002 by Salkovskis et al. [25 (link)]. The Turkish validity and reliability study of the inventory was conducted in 2013 by Aydemir et al. [5 (link)]. The inventory consists of 4-point Likert-scale (never=0 and always=3) 18 questions. The score that can be obtained from the inventory varies between 0 and 54 and it is accepted that the level of health anxiety increases as the score increases. In the Turkish validity and reliability study, the Crobach’s alpha coefficient showing the internal consistency of the scale was given as 0.918 [5 (link)].
During the study, individuals who admitted to primary healthcare institutions were informed about the subject and purpose of the study. Verbal consent was obtained from those who agreed to participate in the study. The previously prepared questionnaire forms were filled out by the researchers through the face-to-face interview method. This process took approximately 20–25 min.
In the study, the family income of individuals was evaluated as “high, medium, and low” according to their perceptions. General health status was evaluated as “good, medium, and bad” by questioning how people define their health status. Those who declared that they had been diagnosed with chronic disease by a physician before were accepted as “they have a physician-diagnosed chronic disease.” Likewise, the person’s state of having a mental and behavioral disorder (psychiatric illness) and experiencing symptoms of mental and behavioral disorders was also evaluated according to the person’s response to the relevant questions.
