The validity and reliability of turkish version of anxiety sensitivity index-3

Objective: Anxiety sensitivity has been defined as an excessive fear from senses and symptoms of anxiety and arises from a belief that anxiety symptoms that one could experience would cause some hazardous results. As a condition increasing anxiety, anxiety sensitivity also increases the risk of developing an anxiety disorder in an individual; and was first defined by Reiss and McNally in 1985. In order to measure anxiety sensitivity, several scales have been developed such as Anxiety Sensitivity Index, Anxiety Sensitivity Index-Revised and Anxiety Sensitivity Profile. The aim of the present study is to investigate validity and reliability of Anxiety Sensitivity Index?3 in patient and healthy volunteer groups, developed by Taylor et al. in 2007, by adapting it into Turkish.Method: The study was carried out in 450 subjects consisting of 150 healthy individuals without any psychiatric disorder and 300 patients with any anxiety disorder and/or major depression according to DSM-IV criteria. All subjects included in the study were evaluated by M.I.N.I. (Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview) which is a structured interview for determination of psychiatric disorders according to DSM-IV criteria. All subjects included in the study were also given a sociodemographic form, Anxiety Sensitivity Index?3 (ASI - 3), Anxiety Sensitivity Index (ASI), State-Trait Anxiety Inventory-Trait Form (STAI?T), The Somatosensory Amplification Scale (SAS), Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI) and Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) that were all self report tests.Results: The validity part of the study revealed that the scale differentiates the patients from the healthy group in all disease conditions (panic disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, obsessive compulsive disorder, social anxiety disorder, major depressive disorder) except for anxiety disorder not otherwise specified (NOS) (p= 0.289). The scale was found to be highly related to ASI (r= 0.85, p< 0.001), and BAI (r= 0.71, p< 0.01) and moderately related to STAI-T (r= 0.68, p< 0.01), BDI (r= 0.57, p< 0.01), and SAS (r=0.47, p< 0.01). In the factor analysis, ASI?3 was found to be composed of 3 factors; physical, cognitive and social. It was also found that ASI-3 had a high internal consistency (Cronbach ? coefficient= 0.93), all items of the scale had sufficient consistency with the whole scale, and the scale had a fairly good test ? retest reliability (r= 0.64, p< 0.001).Conclusion: According to the present study, ASI?3 Turkish version showed to be a valid and a reliable scale. This scale is thought to be useful in understanding the cognitive structure of patients with especially panic disorder, as well as other anxiety disorders and major depressive disorder, in both clinical studies and in primary health care investigations.Keywords: Anxiety sensitivity, Anxiety Sensitivity Index ? 3, validity, reliability