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Hypochondriasis in an Institutional Geriatric Population: Construction of a Scale (HSIG)
Author(s) -
BRINK T. L.,
BELANGER J.,
BRYANT J.,
CAPRI D.,
JANAKES C.,
JASCULCA S.,
OLIVEIRA C.
Publication year - 1978
Publication title -
journal of the american geriatrics society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.992
H-Index - 232
eISSN - 1532-5415
pISSN - 0002-8614
DOI - 10.1111/j.1532-5415.1978.tb05040.x
Subject(s) - medicine , scale (ratio) , test (biology) , population , clinical psychology , psychiatry , gerontology , paleontology , physics , environmental health , quantum mechanics , biology
The staffs at three extended care facilities identified a group of 10 hypochondriacal patients. The research team asked these 10 patients and 59 controls, 27 questions relating to health attitudes and behaviors. Six items were found to be fairly useful in distinguishing hypochondriacal from non‐hypochondriacal subjects. These six items were taken as the Hypochondriasis Scale for Institutional Geriatric Patients (HSIG), and each patient was scored on the basis of his responses to these six items. This test proved to be one way of distinguishing between hypochondriacal and non‐hypochondriacal groups (P <.005). However, because of the possibility of false positive results, the scale should be used only to confirm staff suspicions of hypochondriasis and should not be used as part of the clinical intake procedure.