Development and initial validation of a measure of metacognitive beliefs in health anxiety: The MCQ-HA

Bailey, Robin; Wells, Adrian

doi:10.1016/j.psychres.2015.11.035

Cited by 49 publications

(72 citation statements)

References 59 publications

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“…The MCQ‐HA (Bailey & Wells, ) assesses the three already introduced metacognitive beliefs related to health anxiety: thoughts can cause illness, biased thinking, and thoughts are uncontrollable. Items are rated using a 4‐point scale (ranging from 1 to 4).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Because a measure assessing metacognitive beliefs about cyberchondria does not yet exist, a measure assessing metacognitive beliefs about health anxiety was used in Study 2. Bailey and Wells () developed the Metacognitions Questionnaire—Health Anxiety (MCQ‐HA) and found three sets of metacognitive beliefs underlying health anxiety, including that thoughts can cause illness (e.g., “Worrying about illness is likely to make it happen”), biased thinking (e.g., “Worrying about my health will help me cope”), and thoughts are uncontrollable (e.g., “Dwelling on thoughts of illness is uncontrollable”). Biased thinking reflects positive metacognitive beliefs, whereas the other two sets of beliefs reflect negative metacognitive beliefs.…”

Section: Studymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Biased thinking reflects positive metacognitive beliefs, whereas the other two sets of beliefs reflect negative metacognitive beliefs. On the basis of Bailey and Wells's () findings that uncontrollability metacognitive beliefs are particularly relevant to health anxiety, we expected that the set of metacognitive beliefs related to thoughts as being uncontrollable from the MCH‐HA would appear most relevant to cyberchondria.…”

Section: Studymentioning

confidence: 99%

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Cyberchondria: Examining relations with problematic Internet use and metacognitive beliefs

Fergus

Spada

2017

Clin Psychology and Psychoth

116

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Cyberchondria refers to the repeated use of the Internet to search for health-related information, which leads to negative consequences. This two-part study provides the first known examination of how cyberchondria relates to (a) problematic Internet use and (b) metacognitive beliefs. Participants were U.S. community adults who reported using the Internet to search for health-related information (Study 1: N = 337, Study 2: N = 260). In Study 1, cyberchondria shared a strong association with problematic Internet use, and that association was unaccounted for by age, gender, current reported medical status, negative affect, or health anxiety. In Study 2, cyberchondria was found to share moderate to strong associations with metacognitive beliefs. The association between cyberchondria and metacognitive beliefs about the uncontrollability of thoughts remained intact after accounting for the Study 1 covariates, as well as anxiety sensitivity and intolerance of uncertainty. Neither anxiety sensitivity nor intolerance of uncertainty shared unique associations with cyberchondria. These results provide a preliminary indication that a metacognitive conceptualization of problematic Internet use may be applicable to cyberchondria.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Studymentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Studymentioning

confidence: 99%

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Cyberchondria: Examining relations with problematic Internet use and metacognitive beliefs

Fergus

Spada

2017

Clin Psychology and Psychoth

116

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“…In an Italian community sample, Melli, Carraresi, Poli and Bailey (2016) identified metacognitive beliefs were associated with symptoms of health anxiety (range of correlations .20 to .50). Bailey & Wells (In press) in a replication study found that metacognitive beliefs were again associated with health anxiety (range of correlations .52 to .68) Solem et al, (2015) Bailey & Wells, 2015b) that is more specific to health anxiety than the MCQ and is also grounded in the metacognitive model.…”

Section: A C C E P T E D Accepted Manuscriptmentioning

confidence: 98%

“…The MCQ-HA has been shown to have incremental predictive validity over the MCQ (Bailey & Wells, 2015b) Although illness beliefs, catastrophic misinterpretation, somatosensory amplification, neuroticism and metacognitive beliefs are all associated with health anxiety, the majority of studies have tended to be cross-sectional in nature and therefore limit any causal interpretations. In fact when considering the amount of health anxiety research conducted to date, there are few prospective studies demonstrating temporal relationships between these variables.…”

Section: A C C E P T E D Accepted Manuscriptmentioning

confidence: 99%

Is metacognition a causal moderator of the relationship between catastrophic misinterpretation and health anxiety? A prospective study

Bailey

Wells

2016

Behaviour Research and Therapy

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Metacognitive beliefs as a predictor of health anxiety in a self‐reporting Italian clinical sample

Melli

Bailey

Carraresi³

et al. 2017

Clin Psychology and Psychoth

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Research has supported the specific role that anxiety sensitivity, health-related dysfunctional beliefs, and metacognitive beliefs may play in the development and maintenance of health anxiety symptoms. However, the role of metacognitive beliefs in health anxiety has only been explored in analogue samples. The aim of this study was to explore for the first time the association between metacognitive beliefs and health anxiety symptoms in a sample of participants who reported having received a diagnosis of severe health anxiety (hypochondriasis) or illness anxiety disorder and test whether these beliefs are significant predictors of health anxiety after controlling for anxiety, depression, anxiety sensitivity, and dysfunctional beliefs. A series of dimensional self-report measures were administered to a large Italian sample (N = 458). At a bivariate level, Beliefs that Thoughts are Uncontrollable had a stronger association with health anxiety than any of the dysfunctional beliefs and anxiety sensitivity subscales. Results from hierarchical multiple regression analysis indicated that Beliefs that Thoughts are Uncontrollable predicted health anxiety symptoms over-and-above depression, general anxiety, anxiety sensitivity, and health-related dysfunctional beliefs. Despite many important limitations, this study supported the hypothesis that metacognition may have an important role in health anxiety in clinical samples.

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Development and initial validation of a measure of metacognitive beliefs in health anxiety: The MCQ-HA

Cited by 49 publications

References 59 publications

Cyberchondria: Examining relations with problematic Internet use and metacognitive beliefs

Cyberchondria: Examining relations with problematic Internet use and metacognitive beliefs

Is metacognition a causal moderator of the relationship between catastrophic misinterpretation and health anxiety? A prospective study

Metacognitive beliefs as a predictor of health anxiety in a self‐reporting Italian clinical sample

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