Psychometric properties of a Persian version of the short form of health anxiety inventory in non-clinical Iranian populations

This paper examines the psychometric properties of a Persian version of the Short form of Health Anxiety Inventory (F- SHAI) among non-clinical Iranian population. After translation of the SHAI from English into Persian and pilot testing, the following steps were taken: first, the F-SHAI was administered to 519 healthy students or employees from a number of universities in Tehran. The results of principal component analysis with Varimax rotation showed that three factors best explained the F-SHAI structure amongst the study sample. These factors were (1) “Illness Probability”, (2) “Illness Consequences”, and (3) “Preoccupation with Illness”. Cronbach alphas, mean inter-item correlations and test-retest coefficients (with 21-day interval) showed that this solution was reliable. Second, in order to examine the convergent and divergent validity of the F-SHAI and its 3 subscales, 472 participants from the original sample (i.e., 519) completed the two measures of Illness Attitude Scale (IAS) and Positive and Negative Affects Scales (PANAS). Pearson correlations were calculated between the F-SHAI and its 3 subscales with the total scores of the IAS and positive affect and negative affect of the PANAS. These results provide further support for the convergent validity of the F-SHAI and its 3 subscales. Furthermore, these results confirme the divergent validity of the F- SHAI and the two subscales of “Illness Probability” and “Illness Consequences”. The authors suggest that the F-SHAI and its 3 subscales are sufficiently valid and reliable for research purposes in the Iranian population.