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A new measure of excessive parental worries about children's health: development of the Health Anxiety by Proxy Scale (HAPYS)

Title: A new measure of excessive parental worries about children's health: development of the Health Anxiety by Proxy Scale (HAPYS)
Authors: Ingeman, K
Frostholm, L
Frydendal, DH
Wright, KD
Lockhart, E
Kangas, M
Rask, CU
Garralda, ME
Item Type: Journal Article
Abstract: OBJECTIVE: Health anxiety by proxy is a newly introduced term to describe parents' experience of excessive and unpleasant worries about their child's health. This article describes the development of a new measure, the Health Anxiety by Proxy Scale (HAPYS), for systematic assessment of health anxiety by proxy. METHOD: The development of the HAPYS was performed over three phases. (1) Patients clinically assessed to have health anxiety by proxy participated in semi-structured interviews to elaborate their experience of worries regarding their child's health and their related behaviours, and to examine the face validity of items in an existing questionnaire: 'Illness Worry Scale - parent version'. (2) Based on the findings from Phase 1 the project group and a panel of experts selected and formulated questionnaire items and scoring formats. (3) The HAPYS was pilot-tested twice using cognitive interviewing with healthy parents and parents with health anxiety by proxy followed by further adjustments. RESULTS: The final version of HAPYS consists of 26 items characteristic of health anxiety by proxy and of an impact section with five items. CONCLUSION: Based on the pilot testing the HAPYS showed good face and content validity. It holds the potential to be a valid questionnaire to help clinicians across health care settings assess parents suffering from health anxiety by proxy.
Issue Date: 16-Mar-2021
Date of Acceptance: 4-Mar-2021
URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10044/1/87842
DOI: 10.1080/08039488.2021.1900389
ISSN: 0029-1455
Publisher: Danish Psychiatric Association
Start Page: 523
End Page: 531
Journal / Book Title: Nordic Journal of Psychiatry
Volume: 75
Issue: 7
Copyright Statement: © 2021 The Nordic Psychiatric Association. This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Nordic Journal of Psychiatry on 16 March 2021, available online: https://doi.org/10.1080/08039488.2021.1900389
Keywords: Science & Technology
Life Sciences & Biomedicine
Psychiatry
Measurement
psychological assessment
health anxiety
parents
Measurement
health anxiety
parents
psychological assessment
Anxiety
Child
Child Health
Humans
Parents
Proxy
Surveys and Questionnaires
Humans
Anxiety
Parents
Child
Proxy
Surveys and Questionnaires
Child Health
Measurement
health anxiety
parents
psychological assessment
1103 Clinical Sciences
Psychiatry
Publication Status: Published
Conference Place: England
Online Publication Date: 2021-03-16
Appears in Collections:Faculty of Medicine
Department of Brain Sciences