Sleep and Hypnosis: A Journal of Clinical Neuroscience and Psychopathology January 2018 20(4):241-246
Yavuz Selvi, Selcuk University
Seda Gökçe Turan, Bahçeşehir University
Ayça Asena Sayin, Selcuk University
Murat Boysan
Objective: Even though the internet is a valuable resource for medical information, it has the potential to increase anxiety, fear or obsessive-compulsive behaviours, particularly among individuals more prone to health related anxiety. Researchers have found that health anxiety, hypochondria, and online health searches are associated with increased anxious symptomatology. The aim of this study is to investigate the psychometric properties of the Turkish version of the Cyberchondria Severity Scale, a measure of online health anxiety. Method: Three hundred thirty-seven university students with an age range of 16-55 were included in the study. The Cyberchondria Severity Scale (CSS), Internet Addiction Test (IAT), Anxiety Sensitivity Inventory-3 (ASI-3), and Health Anxiety Inventory (HAI) were administered to participants. Results: Confirmatory factor analysis revealed that five-factor solution best fit to the data. The overall and subscales of the CSS had excellent internal consistency (Cronbach α = 0.91, for the overall measure, and Cronbach α values ranged from 0.78 to 0.87), with an exception of ‘mistruct of medical professional’ subscale (Cronbach α = 0.64). The total and subscales of the CSS had generally good convergent validity. Conclusion: The CSS is a newly developed screening tool to assess online health anxiety, and present study demonstrated that the Turkish version of the scale had promising psychometric properties.