Health Anxiety Inventory

What it measures

Measures health anxiety — excessive preoccupation with the possibility of having or developing a serious illness. Taps two dimensions: the perceived likelihood of becoming ill and the perceived negative consequences of becoming ill. Widely used in CBT research for health anxiety and illness anxiety disorder.

Response format

Forced choice from 4 statements (scored 0–3 per item); total 0–54

Representative items

• I do not worry about my health (0) / I occasionally worry about my health (1) / I spend much of my time worrying about my health (2) / I spend most of my time worrying about my health (3)
• If I noticed an unexplained physical sensation I would... (0=not think about it / 1=think about it briefly / 2=spend time thinking about it / 3=spend a lot of time thinking about it)
• I would not think about having a serious illness (0) ... / I would think it was very likely I had a serious illness (3)

Usage notes & scoring

Score ranges: 0–18 no significant health anxiety, 19–34 significant health anxiety, 35+ clinical range. Freely available from Paul Salkovskis. Short HAI (14 items, illness likelihood only) also used. Primary outcome in CBT for health anxiety RCTs.

Recommended companion scales

Citation

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, 32(5), 843–853.

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