Abstract
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.