Detection of illness worry in the general population: A specific item on illness rumination improves the Whiteley Index

Carstensen, Tina Birgitte Wisbech; Ørnbøl, Eva; Fink, Per; Pedersen, Majbritt Mostrup; Jørgensen, Torben; Dantoft, Thomas Meinertz; Benros, Michael E.; Frostholm, Lisbeth

doi:10.1016/j.jpsychores.2020.110245

Cited by 33 publications

(25 citation statements)

References 30 publications

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“…1. Illness worry: Illness worry was measured with the six-item Whiteley-6-R [ 26 ]. Responses are recorded on a 5-point rating scale ranging from “not at all” to “a great deal”.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Associations (reported as adjusted median values with 95% confidence intervals) between illness worry and sex, age, education, and physical disease during the Covid-19 pandemic. Illness worry was measured with the Whiteley-6-R [26]. Education: long= > 4 years, medium = 3-4 years, short = < 3 years, no = 0 years responders were younger (median age: 58, IQR: 50-68, p < 0.0001), fewer were cohabiting (78.8%), p = 0.02), and fewer had shorter further education (p < 0.0001).…”

Section: Sample Characteristicsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on mental and physical health in Denmark – a longitudinal population-based study before and during the first wave

et al. 2021

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Background In the continuation of the first wave of the Covid-19 outbreak in Denmark, unprecedented restrictions with great impact on the citizen’s everyday life were implemented. The objectives of this study were to investigate the influence of the Covid-19 pandemic on mental and physical health in the Danish population during the spring 2020 first wave outbreak and lockdown. Methods A sample from the adult Danish population (n = 2190) were included. Self-reported measures of illness worry (Whiteley-6-R), emotional distress (SCL-90), and physical symptom load (SLC-90) were obtained before and during the first wave of the pandemic and compared with Wilcoxon signed-rank tests. Impact of covariates on physical and mental health was evaluated with ordinal regression analyses. Results from a tailored questionnaire regarding the Covid-19 pandemic were presented to explore the direct impact of the pandemic. Results We only found minor increases in illness worry, emotional distress and physical symptom load (0–1 points difference, p ≤ 0.007) during the Covid-19 pandemic compared to before the pandemic. Sex, age, education, and physical disease were not associated with illness worry, emotional distress, or physical symptom load. Overall, the participants were trustful in the authorities’ recommendations and felt that they managed the pandemic and the restrictions to a great extent despite that some expected great/major future consequences of the pandemic. Conclusions This study suggested that the first wave of the Covid-19 pandemic only had minor impact on mental and physical health in the Danish general population. Future studies should address the impact of the second wave of the pandemic and the renewed implementation of the concomitant restrictions.

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“…1. Illness worry: Illness worry was measured with the six-item Whiteley-6-R [ 26 ]. Responses are recorded on a 5-point rating scale ranging from “not at all” to “a great deal”.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Sample Characteristicsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on mental and physical health in Denmark – a longitudinal population-based study before and during the first wave

et al. 2021

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“…WI-8 was first developed by Fink et al (2004) and Carstensen et al (2020), and our study is the first to perform a psychometric evaluation of the Chinese version of the WI-8 as a health anxiety screening scale. Participants were outpatients in general hospitals, predominantly city dwellers, well-educated and not living alone.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Psychometric Evaluation of the Whiteley Index-8 in Chinese Outpatients in General Hospitals

et al. 2021

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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.

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“…Illness worry was measured with the revised version of the six-item Whiteley Index (Whiteley-6-R), 37 addressing respondents' fear of being ill and whether they attribute current bodily sensations to somatic illness. (In the primary care sample, one of the items in the Whiteley-6-R 'Do you worry about the possibility that you suffer from an illness you have heard or read about?'…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A standardised root mean square residual <0.08 indicates good fit. 41 Convergent validity was tested with Spearman's correlations, and associations between the BDS checklist and overall health (one item from SF-36), 32 physical function (an aggregate score of four items from the SF-36), 42 emotional distress (SCL-8) 35 and illness worry (Whiteley-6-R) 37 were obtained. Based on previous literature, 12 14 15 17 43 we hypothesised that the BDS checklist would show moderate convergent validity (r=0.40-0.60) with the four measures, and we expected lower correlations in the sample from specialised setting.…”

Section: Validation Procedures and Statistical Analysesmentioning

confidence: 99%

The BDS checklist as measure of illness severity: a cross-sectional cohort study in the Danish general population, primary care and specialised setting

et al. 2020

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ObjectiveThe bodily distress syndrome (BDS) checklist has proven to be useful in the diagnostic categorisation and as screening tool for functional somatic disorders (FSD). This study aims to investigate whether the BDS checklist total sum score (0–100) can be used as a measure of physical symptom burden and FSD illness severity.DesignCross-sectional.SettingDanish general population, primary care and specialised clinical setting.ParticipantsA general population cohort (n=9656), a primary care cohort (n=2480) and a cohort of patients with multiorgan BDS from specialised clinical setting (n=492).Outcome measuresAll data were self-reported. Physical symptoms were measured with the 25-item BDS checklist. Overall self-perceived health was measured with one item from the 36-item Short-Form Health Survey (SF-36). Physical functioning was measured with an aggregate score of four items from the SF-36/SF-12 scales ‘physical functioning’, ‘bodily pain’ and ‘vitality’. Emotional distress was measured with the mental distress subscale (SCL-8) from the Danish version of the Hopkins Symptom Checklist-90. Illness worry was measured with the six-item Whiteley Index.ResultsFor all cohorts, bifactor models established that despite some multidimensionality the total sum score of the BDS checklist adequately reflected physical symptom burden and illness severity. The BDS checklist had acceptable convergent validity with measures of overall health (r=0.25–0.58), physical functioning (r=0.22–0.58), emotional distress (r=0.47–0.62) and illness worry (r=0.36–0.55). Acceptability was good with a low number of missing responses to items (<3%). Internal consistency was high (α ≥0.879). BDS score means varied and reflected symptom burden across cohorts (13.03–46.15). We provide normative data for the Danish general population.ConclusionsThe BDS checklist total sum score can be used as a measure of symptom burden and FSD illness severity across settings. These findings establish the usefulness of the BDS checklist in clinics and in research, both as a diagnostic screening tool and as an instrument to assess illness severity.

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Detection of illness worry in the general population: A specific item on illness rumination improves the Whiteley Index

Cited by 33 publications

References 30 publications

The impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on mental and physical health in Denmark – a longitudinal population-based study before and during the first wave

The impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on mental and physical health in Denmark – a longitudinal population-based study before and during the first wave

Psychometric Evaluation of the Whiteley Index-8 in Chinese Outpatients in General Hospitals

The BDS checklist as measure of illness severity: a cross-sectional cohort study in the Danish general population, primary care and specialised setting

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