Psychometric properties and factor structure of the Greek version of the Cardiac Anxiety Questionnaire (CAQ)

The factor structure of the cardiac anxiety questionnaire, and validation in a post-MI population

BACKGROUND

CVD-patients with higher levels of cardiac anxiety suffer psychologically, as well as being at increased risk for cardiac morbidity and mortality. Therefore it is important to be able to assess CA in a clinical setting. It is currently measured with the Cardiac Anxiety Questionnaire, which has conflicting findings regarding its factor structure, and it has not been validated in a Swedish population. This study aimed to examine the factor structure of CAQ and its psychometric properties in a Swedish CVD-population.

METHODS

Nine hundred thirty patients post-MI were recruited at different Swedish hospitals and completed the CAQ, along with several other questionnaires. Exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis were conducted to explore factor structure and to inspect various factor solutions from previous research. Standard psychometric tests were performed for the CAQ to test its validity and reliability.

RESULTS

The exploratory analysis found a model with the factors Fear/Worry, Avoidance and Attention. The confirmatory factor analysis indicated that a 3-factor solution best fitted the data, but with certain items removed. Additionally, psychometric properties turned out acceptable in a Swedish post-MI population.

CONCLUSIONS

We conclude that the original 3-factor structure of the CAQ is valid, but that the questionnaire could be revised in regard to some items. A shorter 10-items version could also be considered. We also confirm that the CAQ is a valid instrument to measure CA in a Swedish MI-population.

TRIAL REGISTRATION

The study was registered on ClinicalTrials.gov on 05/01/2012 (NCT01504191).

Heart-Focused Anxiety Among Latinxs in Primary Care: Relations to Anxiety, Depression, Pain, and Functional Impairment

There is a public health need to better characterize the individual-based differences that may be involved in the expression and maintenance of psychological and related health problems among Latinx individuals. One individual difference factor that may be relevant to the nexus of psychological and physical concerns is heart-focused anxiety. The current study sought to evaluate the potential explanatory relevance of heart-focused anxiety as an important individual difference factor for anxiety, depression, pain experience, and functional impairment. Participants included 158 Latinx adults (Mage = 39.26, SD = 13.19; 85.4% female) from a primary health clinic. Results indicated that heart-focused anxiety was significantly related to anxious arousal, pain intensity, pain disability, and functional impairment. However, no significant effects were evident for depressive symptoms. These data indicate that heart-focused anxiety may be an underrecognized cognitive factor relevant to better understanding anxiety and pain among Latinx adults in primary care.

Quality of life in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus: a cross-sectional study

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to investigate certain social and psychological parameters and to compare them with basic demographic information, such as the gender and the education, of patients suffering from Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM).

Design/methodology/approach

A cross-sectional study of Type 2 diabetic patients was conducted. In total, 200 patients with T2DM were enrolled in the study. Psychological factors were assessed with questionnaires, including the Symptom Checklist 90-R (SCL-90-R), the Short-Form Health Survey (SF-36), the Life Orientation Test-Revised (LOT-R) and the Cardiac Anxiety Questionnaire (CAQ). The associations of psychological with socio-demographic factors were assessed through logistic regression analyses.

Findings

Women patients had higher levels of heart-focused anxiety psychopathology than men, and therefore, women tend to avoid activities that burden the heart. Men patients had a significantly higher index of physical functionality than women. No differences were recorded by the SCL-90R questionnaire between men and women. For the patients with elementary education, lower levels of mental health (SF-36-MCS) were observed.

Originality/value

The chronicity of the disease aggravates the psychopathology of the patients thereby creating adverse impact not only on health but also on efforts for compliance. A personalized approach by the health professionals could contribute in addressing the psychological factors that accompany T2DM.

The Swedish version of the Insomnia Severity Index: Factor structure analysis and psychometric properties in chronic pain patients

Objective

Insomnia is the most commonly diagnosed comorbidity disorder among patients with chronic pain. This circumstance requests brief and valid instruments for screening insomnia in epidemiological studies. The main object of this study was to assess the psychometric properties and factor structure of the Swedish version of the Insomnia Severity Index (ISI). The ISI is a short instrument designed to measure clinical insomnia and one of the most common used scales both in clinical and research practice. However there is no study in Sweden that guarantees neither its factor structure nor its feasibility in chronic pain patients. We further examined the measurement invariance property of the ISI across the two sexes.

Methods

The ISI was administered to 836 (269 men and 567 women) chronic pain patients from the Swedish Quality Registry for Pain Rehabilitation. This study used demographic data, the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS), the Mental Summary Component (MSC) of the Health Survey (SF-36) and the item 7 from Multidimensional Pain Inventory (MPI). The sample was divided into two random halves: exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was performed in the first sample (N1 = 334, 40%) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) in the second half of the sample (N2 = 502, 60%). The measurement and structural invariance of the proposed structure (4-item version) between the two sexes as well as reliability and validity indexes were further assessed.

Results

Exploratory factor analysis using the principal axis factoring method generated one global factor structure for the ISI, explaining 63.1% of the total variance. The one factor solution was stable between the two sexes. Principal component analysis was also applied and indicated almost identical results. The structure was further assessed by CFA, resulting in an adequate fit only after omitting three items. The difference on structural and measurement invariance in the loadings by participants’ sex was not significant (Δχ 2 = 10.6; df = 3; p = .69 and Δχ 2 = 2.86; df = 3; p = 41 respectively). The shorter version four-item Insomnia Severity Index (ISI-4) was analysed further. The Chronbach’s alpha for the global ISI-4 score was 0.88. The construct validity of the ISI-4 was also supported by the, Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, the Mental Summary Component of quality of life and quality of sleep data. Pain intensity was significantly associated with the ISI-4 score (beta = .29, p < 001) whereas no significant correlation between four-item Insomnia Severity Index score and age was observed (p > 05).

Conclusions and implications

Although short, the four-item Insomnia Severity Index (ISI-4) version seemed to effectively assess insomnia in chronic pain patients. An important clinical implication is that the four-item Swedish Insomnia Severity Index can be used in chronic pain cohorts when screening for insomnia problems. Its measurement and structural invariance property across the two sexes shows that the ISI-4 is a valid measure of the insomnia across groups of chronic patients. Our results also suggest its utility both in pain clinical practice and research purposes.

Psychometric Properties of the International Personality Item Pool Big-Five Personality Questionnaire for the Greek population

Goldberg’s International Personality Item Pool (IPIP) big-five personality factor markers currently lack validating evidence. The structure of the 50-item IPIP was examined in two different adult samples (total N=811), in each case justifying a 5-factor solution, with only minor discrepancies. Age differences were comparable to previous findings using other inventories. One sample (N=193) also completed additionally another personality measure (the TIPI Short Form). Conscientiousness, extraversion and emotional stability/neuroticism scales of the IPIP were highly correlated with those of the TIPI (r=0.62 to 0.65, P=0.01). Agreeableness and Intellect/Openness scales correlated less strongly (r=0.54 and 0.58 respectively, P=0.01). The IPIP scales have good internal consistency (a=0.88) and relate strongly to major dimensions of personality assessed by the two questionnaires.

Brazilian Portuguese validated version of the Cardiac Anxiety Questionnaire

Background

Cardiac Anxiety (CA) is the fear of cardiac sensations, characterized by recurrent anxiety symptoms, in patients with or without cardiovascular disease. The Cardiac Anxiety Questionnaire (CAQ) is a tool to assess CA, already adapted but not validated to Portuguese.

Objective

This paper presents the three phases of the validation studies of the Brazilian CAQ.

Methods

To extract the factor structure and assess the reliability of the CAQ (phase 1), 98 patients with coronary artery disease were recruited. The aim of phase 2 was to explore the convergent and divergent validity. Fifty-six patients completed the CAQ, along with the Body Sensations Questionnaire (BSQ) and the Social Phobia Inventory (SPIN). To determine the discriminative validity (phase 3), we compared the CAQ scores of two subgroups formed with patients from phase 1 (n = 98), according to the diagnoses of panic disorder and agoraphobia, obtained with the MINI - Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview.

Results

A 2-factor solution was the most interpretable (46.4% of the variance). Subscales were named "Fear and Hypervigilance" (n = 9; alpha = 0.88), and "Avoidance", (n = 5; alpha = 0.82). Significant correlation was found between factor 1 and the BSQ total score (p < 0.01), but not with factor 2. SPIN factors showed significant correlations with CAQ subscales (p < 0.01). In phase 3, "Cardiac with panic" patients scored significantly higher in CAQ factor 1 (t = -3.42; p < 0.01, CI = -1.02 to -0.27), and higher, but not significantly different, in factor 2 (t = -1.98; p = 0.51, CI = -0.87 to 0.00).

Conclusions

These results provide a definite Brazilian validated version of the CAQ, adequate to clinical and research settings.