Beliefs questionnaire

 Beliefs questionnaire

This questionnaire has two parts.

Below are some thoughts or ideas that may go through your mind when you are nervous or when you become concerned about your health. Indicate how often each thought occurs by rating each thought form 1-5 using the scale below. Put your fating- on the LEFT hand side of each item.

1.                  Thought never occurs

2.                  Thought rarely occurs

3.                  Thought occurs during half of the times- when I am nervous or concerned

4.           Thought usually occurs                                                                                             .

5.                  Thought always occurs

When you are worried about your health‚ how much would you believe each of these thoughts to be true?

Go back and rate each thought by choosing a number from the scale below‚ and put the number which applies on the dotted line on the RIGHT of the form.

                  o      10  20    30    40    50  60    70    80    90    100

0= I do not believe this thought at all

10= I am completely convinced this thought is true

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This was described and published in Psychological Medicine in 2002. Reference – Salkovskis‚ P.M.‚ Rimes‚ K.A.‚ Warwick‚ H.M.C. & Clark‚ D.M (2002) The Health Anxiety Inventory: development and validation of scales for the measurement of health anxiety and hypochondriasis. Psychological Medicine‚ Vol. 32‚ 843-853.

There are two referents; these are referred to here as the “week” and “month” versions. The month versions are used as screening instruments and ask for ratings of how the person has been over the last six months. This period is chosen because six months is the period used by DSM-IV for the diagnosis of hypochondriasis.

There are four sections in the health anxiety inventory. The main section is composed of symptoms of health anxiety (hypochondriasis). The second section comprises questions about people’s attitudes to how awful it would be if they were to develop a particular illness. This is scored separately and is regarded as a treatment process measure. Ratings of avoidance and reassurance seeking are also included. The Health Anxiety Inventory main section is scored on a 0 – 3 basis and the section total is used. For the short version this is the first 14 questions. Four questions regarding awfulness are then totalled separately. Reassurance and avoidance seeking are simply totalled but the “other” items in each is not included in the total.

The short version is the version most commonly used for clinical purposes with the long version being for specific research purposes with subscales being available. The “week” version is‚ of course‚ more sensitive to treatment changes and is used as a treatment outcome measure.

HAI Short Week (PDF 580 kb)

HAI Long Week (PDF 1.53 mb)

HAI Short Month (PDF 577 kb)

HAI Long Month (PDF 1.53 mb)

Beliefs Questionnaire (PDF 45 kb)

RCQ (PDF 276 kb)

Illness Attitudes Questionnaire (PDF 158 kb)

For further information on Health Anxiety please visit the Health Anxiety‚ Pain‚ and Insomnia (HAPI) website