Cyberchondria and its measurement. The Polish adaptation and psychometric properties of the Cyberchondria Severity Scale CSS-PL
Open accessAbstract
Cel pracy: Celem artykułu jest przedstawienie procesu adaptacji testu do pomiaru cyberchondrii (Cyberchondria Severity Scale, CSS) do warunków polskich, jak i weryfikacja wybranych miar rzetelności narzędzia i trafności teoretycznej testu. Metoda: Uczestnikami badania było 380 osób (203 kobiet i 177 mężczyzn) w wieku od 19 do 68 lat, (M = 26,5; SD = 11,1). Do badania wykorzystano CSS-PL do pomiaru cyberchondrii, Kwestionariusz Lęku o Zdrowie (SHAI) do pomiaru hipochondrii i Skalę Wymiarów Obsesyjno-Kompulsywnych (DOCS) do weryfikacji natężenia skłonności obsesyjno-kompulsywnych. Wyniki: Badanie potwierdziło czteroczynnikową strukturę cyberchondrii mierzonej skalą CSS-PL. Wskaźniki spójności wewnętrznej podskal CSS-PL uzyskały poziom: 0,87–0,95; a stabilności bezwzględnej: 0,58–0,76. Badanie wykazało trafność teoretyczną skali CSS-PL w kontekście związków cyberchondrii z lękiem o zdrowie (r = 0,31–0,56) i objawami obsesyjno-kompulsywnymi (r = 0,17–0,48). Wnioski: Skala CSS-PL jest wstępną wystandaryzowaną wersją narzędzia do pomiaru cyberchondrii i spełnia kryteria psychometryczne w zakresie rzetelności i trafności testów psychologicznych. CSS-PL może być użytecznym narzędziem wykorzystywanym zarówno w badaniach diagnostycznych, jak i badaniach naukowych.
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Subjects with elevated health anxiety experience greater anxiety during and after online health searches and report more frequent and longer searches, compared to those with lower or normal levels of health anxiety.
“Several studies have found that subjects with elevated health anxiety experience greater anxiety during and after online health searches and report more frequent and longer searches, compared to those with lower or normal levels of health anxiety [10,29,43,45,53,59].”
From Is cyberchondria a new transdiagnostic digital compulsive syndrome? A systematic review of the evidence (2020) · cites this paper as [53]
All CSS subscales showed moderate to strong intercorrelations, except for the mistrust factor, where only small or nonexistent associations were observed.
“As detailed in Multimedia Appendix 4 [16-19,26,40,41] all CSS subscales showed moderate to strong intercorrelations, except for the mistrust factor, where only small or nonexistent associations were observed.”
From Conceptualizations of cyberchondria and relations to the anxiety spectrum: Systematic review and meta-analysis (2021) · cites this paper as [40]
Other versions of the CSS regarding language (German and Polish) and length (short versions in English and German) show psychometric qualities comparable with the original version.
“Other versions of the CSS regarding language (German [39] and Polish [40]) and length (short versions in English [50] and German [39]) show psychometric qualities comparable with the original version.”
From Conceptualizations of cyberchondria and relations to the anxiety spectrum: Systematic review and meta-analysis (2021) · cites this paper as [40]
The DOCS total scale is significantly correlated to the CSS total scales with and without mistrust and to all CSS subscales.
“It was shown that the DOCS total scale is significantly correlated to the CSS total scales with (r=0.49, P<.01 [16]; r=0.38, P<.01 [40]) and without mistrust (r=0.49, P<.01 [16]; r=0.56, P<.001 [22]; r=0.38, P<.0 [40]) and to all CSS subscales”
From Conceptualizations of cyberchondria and relations to the anxiety spectrum: Systematic review and meta-analysis (2021) · cites this paper as [40]
All CSS and DOCS subscales showed significant and mostly moderate intercorrelations.
“Moreover, as detailed in Multimedia Appendix 8 [18,19,40], all CSS and DOCS subscales showed significant and mostly moderate intercorrelations.”
From Conceptualizations of cyberchondria and relations to the anxiety spectrum: Systematic review and meta-analysis (2021) · cites this paper as [40]
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- Authors
- Bajcar, B., Babiak, J., & Olchowska-Kotala, A.
- Affiliations
- Wrocław University of Science and Technology (PL)
- Wroclaw Medical University (PL)
- Corresponding author
- Bajcar, Beata
- Venue
- Psychiatria Polska
- Published
- 2019-02-28
- Volume
- 53
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 49-60
- ISSN
- 0033-2674 (ISSN-L)
- 2391-5854
- OpenAlex
- W2922150744
- Cited by
- 61
- References
- 16
- Citations by year
- 2026: 3 · 2025: 8 · 2024: 11 · 2023: 7 · 2022: 10 · 2021: 8 · 2020: 10 · 2019: 3 · 2018: 1
- FWCI
- 10.56
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- pl
- Open access
- diamond
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Psychiatria Polska (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Health Professions › General Health Professions › Health Literacy and Information Accessibility
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Psychiatry and Mental health › Psychosomatic Disorders and Their Treatments
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › COVID-19 and Mental Health
- Keywords
- cyberchondria, Cyberchondria Severity Scale, Polish adaptation, psychometric properties, health anxiety, obsessive-compulsive symptoms, factor structure, reliability statistics, construct validity
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Aged, Female, Humans, Hypochondriasis, Male, Middle Aged, Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, Poland, Psychometrics, Surveys and Questionnaires, Reproducibility of Results, Internet, Young Adult
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