Assessing modern health worries: Dimensionality and factorial invariance across age and sex of the Modern Health Worries Scale in a general population sample. (October 2014)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Spangenberg, Lena; Zenger, Markus; Rief, Winfried; Brähler, Elmar; Glaesmer, Heide
• Is Part Of: Journal of health psychology. Volume 19:Number 10(2014:Oct.)
• Page Start: 1302
• Page End: 1308
• Publication Date: 2014-10
• Subjects: assessment -- dimensionality -- factor structure -- general population -- modern health worries; Clinical health psychology -- Periodicals; 613.019
• DOI: 10.1177/1359105313488980
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1359-1053

Abstract

Previous work suggests a four-factor structure of the Modern Health Worries Scale. This study is the first to investigate its dimensionality and factorial invariance across age and sex in a representative population sample ( N = 2524) using confirmatory factor analysis. The proposed four-factor model failed to achieve good model fit. Model fit was optimized by allowing correlating error terms resulting in acceptable model fit. Multi-group analysis revealed invariance across age and sex. Our study proved the proposed four-factor structure across age and sex. Consequently, the Modern Health Worries Scale can be applied in general population surveys using subscale scores.