Psychometric Properties of the Short Scale Anxiety Sensitivity Index Among Adults with Chronic Respiratory Disease

• Published in: Journal of clinical psychology in medical settings Vol. 31; no. 1; pp. 186 - 196
• Main Authors: Clark, Heather L., Dixon, Laura J., Ramachandran, Sujith, Leukel, Patric J., Lee, Aaron A.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Springer US 01.03.2024; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Adult; Anxiety; Anxiety - diagnosis; Anxiety - psychology; Anxiety Disorders - complications; Anxiety Disorders - diagnosis; Anxiety Disorders - psychology; Asthma; Asthma - complications; Asthma - psychology; Bronchitis; Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease; Comorbidity; Dyspnea; Emergency medical care; Family Medicine; Female; General Practice; Health care; Health Psychology; Hospitalization; Humans; Likert scale; Male; Medicine; Medicine & Public Health; Mental disorders; Mental health; Psychometrics; Pulmonary Disease, Chronic Obstructive - complications; Pulmonary Disease, Chronic Obstructive - diagnosis; Pulmonary Disease, Chronic Obstructive - psychology; Quality of life; Quantitative psychology; Questionnaires; Reproducibility of Results; Respiratory diseases; Surveys and Questionnaires; Validity; Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease; Respiratory disease; Anxiety sensitivity; Asthma
• DOI: 10.1007/s10880-023-09976-y
• ISSN: 1068-9583

Approximately one-third of adults with chronic respiratory disease (CRD) have comorbid depressive and anxiety disorders; yet these disorders are often unrecognized in this patient population. Transdiagnostic processes such as anxiety sensitivity (AS) are useful for identifying mechanisms underlying psychological and heath conditions. The Short-Scale AS Index (SSASI) is a brief self-report measure of AS which has potential clinical utility among CRD populations to evaluate psychological distress and inform comprehensive care. The present study investigated the psychometric properties of the SSASI among adults with CRDs. Participants were recruited from a web-based panel of adults with CRDs ( n  = 768; 49.3% female; 57.8% White) including adults with asthma only ( n  = 230), COPD only ( n  = 321), or co-occurring asthma and COPD ( n  = 217). Participants completed a battery of self-report questionnaires assessing psychological and medical symptoms. Analyses were conducted to examine the factor structure and measurement invariance across CRD groups. Convergent validity and criterion validity of the SSASI were assessed within each group. Results supported partial measurement invariance across CRD groups. The SSASI demonstrated high reliability, convergent validity, and criterion validity with each CRD group. Findings from this study and existing work indicate that the SSASI is an effective and economical assessment tool for identifying patients CRD who may benefit from psychological interventions to reduce AS.