Health anxiety is common in later life, yet little is known about its daily fluctuations or the emergence of distinct trajectories. Furthermore, no concise measure of health anxiety has been validated for use in frequent, intensive assessment settings. This study aimed to 1) validate a single-item measure suitable for capturing short-term changes in health anxiety, and 2) yield distinct trajectories of health anxiety in adults aged 50+. We conducted an intensive longitudinal, smartphone-based Ecological Momentary Assessment with middle-aged and older Irish adults (n=53; 58.49% female), recording health anxiety twice daily, over a six-day study period. An exploratory factor analysis and correlation tests investigated the construct and concurrent validity of the single-item measure, comparing such scores to the established Whiteley Index-6 (WI-6). Latent class growth analysis (LCGA) was utilised to identify distinct health anxiety trajectories, adjusting for age, gender, sleep quality, chronic illness, exercise and instrumental activities of daily living (IADLs). The single-item health anxiety measure loaded onto a single factor and correlated strongly with WI-6 scores (r=0.75, p<.001). Health anxiety followed a polynomial growth trend (β=-0.01, p=.01) and LCGA found two trajectories: “low-stable” (89.4%) and “volatile” (10.6%). Poorer self-reported sleep quality (β=-0.10, p=0.01) and greater IADL difficulties (β=0.58, p<0.001) were significantly associated with higher health anxiety scores. Overall, our findings indicate that a single-item measure is sufficient to capture fluctuations in health anxiety. Future research should investigate factors contributing to these fluctuations, to inform interventions aimed at reducing health anxiety over time.

Authors:
Bill Calvey, University College London, United Kingdom
Rebecca Maguire, Maynooth University, Ireland
Joanna McHugh Power, Maynooth University, Ireland

About the Presenter(s)
Dr Bill Calvey is currently a Research Fellow at University College London’s (UCL) Social Research Institute, in the United Kingdom. Dr Calvey examines health anxiety and subjective health perceptions, through prospective cohort studies.

Connect on Linkedin
https://www.linkedin.com/in/billcalvey/

See this presentation on the full schedule – Wednesday Schedule

Bookmark