Objective: The aim of the present study was to adapt the Metacognitive
Beliefs about Health Anxiety Questionnaire (MCQ-HA) to Turkish,
and to evaluate its psychometric properties.
Method: The study consisted of 631 participants, 146 of whom were
diagnosed with a physical illness, while 485 of whom did not have any
physical illness.
Results: As similar to its original form, factor analysis results confirmed
a three-factor structure in samples with and without physical illness,
as well as in the total sample. Results of composite reliability, itemtotal
correlation and test-retest analyses revealed acceptable reliability
coefficients for the MCQ-HA. Convergent validity of the MCQHA
was supported with significant correlations with health anxiety
symptoms and somatosensory amplification both in physical illness and
healthy samples. Result of discriminant validity analysis revealed that
the MCQ-HA was able to differentiate individuals with high and low
levels of health anxiety. Incremental validity examinations showed that
the MCQ-HA accounted for additional variance in health anxiety after
controlling for neuroticism.
Conclusion: The Turkish form of the MCQ-HA has similar
psychometric properties to its original form, and a valid and reliable
assessment device to be used in studies focusing on health anxiety.
Keywords: Health Anxiety, Metacognition, Metacognitive Beliefs
About Health Anxiety Questionnaire, Validity, Reliability