Psychometric properties of the Health Anxiety by Proxy Scale (HAPYS): A new questionnaire to assess parents' worries about their child's health

• Published in: Journal of psychosomatic research 2022-06, Vol.157, p.110861, Article 110861
• Main Authors: Ingeman, K., Wright, K., Frostholm, L., Hoffmann Frydendal, D., Ørnbøl, E., Rask, C.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Anxiety; Anxiety disorders; Catastrophic reactions; Children; Convergent validity; Cronbach's alpha; Discriminant validity; Factor analysis; Health status; High risk; Pain; Parents & parenting; Quantitative psychology; Questionnaires; Self report; Statistical analysis; Test-Retest reliability
• ISSN: 0022-3999; 1879-1360
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jpsychores.2022.110861

Objective Health anxiety (HA) by proxy describes parents' excessive and intrusive worries about their child's health. The Health Anxiety by Proxy Scale (HAPYS) is a self-report questionnaire assessing parents' worries and behaviours relating to their child's health. This study aimed to investigate the psychometric properties of the HAPYS. Methods Questionnaires, includiing the Pain Catastrophizing Scale and the Adult Response to Children's Symptoms, were answered by 204 parents and a HAPYS total score was obtained for 200 parents with different risk of HA by proxy: 39 parents diagnosed with HA (high risk), 33 parents with a Functional Somatic Disorder (intermediate risk), 33 parents with different anxiety disorders (intermediate risk), and 95 healthy parents (low risk). Reliability (Cronbach's alpha and interclass correlation Results HAPYS demonstrated excellent internal reliability (α = 0.95) and test-retest reliability (ICC = 0.91; CI: 0.87–0.94). Convergent validity with the construct of parental catastrophizing was good (r = 0.72; CI: 0.64–0.78)) as hypothesized. Good discriminant validity was demonstrated by the largest total HAPYS score observed in parents with HA (mean = 35.3; SD: 3.9) and the lowest score in healthy parents (mean = 10.7; SD: 0.9) (p < 0.001). Conclusions Preliminary findings support that HAPYS is a useful measure of HA by proxy. Future research should examine the psychometric properties in larger samples and different languages including further statistical analyses specifically factor analyses.