Brief Description
The Short Health Anxiety Inventory (SHAI) is an 18-item assessment designed to measure the severity of health anxiety associated with hypochondriasis. It is based on cognitive theory and focuses on assessing how concerned individuals are about their health and how these concerns affect their daily lives. Respondents are asked to indicate how often they observe themselves engaging in health anxiety-related experiences. For example, they would choose one response in a list such as “Resisting thoughts of illness is never a problem,” “Most of the time I can resist thoughts of illness,” “I try to resist thoughts of illness but am often unable to do so,” “Thoughts of illness are so strong that I no longer even try to resist them.” Each response is assigned a score. This tool is useful for clinicians to track health anxiety levels over time and monitor how patients respond to treatment..
Assessment Administration Type
Self-report
Number of questions
18
Age Range for Administration
18+
Recommended Frequency of Administration
Weekly
Summary of Scoring and Interpretations
Responses are provided on a Likert scale of 0 to 3. Scoring the SHAI involves summing the scores from each item. Total scores can range from 0 to 54. The total score reflects the overall level of health anxiety, with higher scores indicating more severe anxiety. A cutoff score of 27 and higher was determined to differentiate the likelihood of hypochondriasis versus other anxiety disorders.
Blueprint Adjustments
The Blueprint Assessment Library also has an extended version of the SHAI, the SHAI extended. This version includes the avoidance and reassurance subscales from the original Health Anxiety Inventory. In the extended version, Blueprint provides a mean score for the avoidance subscale (items 19-28), which can range from 0 to 8. Blueprint also provides a mean score for the reassurance subscale (items 29-37), ranging from 0 to 8. The initial 18 items are grouped in a subscale that Blueprint has labeled “SHAI total score.” This score is calculated as a mean score.
Clinical Considerations
Estimated time for completion: 4-8 minutes
This measure is sensitive to changes over time, making it a useful tool for monitoring progress in therapy or other interventions aimed at reducing health-related anxiety.
Citation
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