The Illusory Health Beliefs Scale: preliminary validation using exploratory factor and Rasch analysis.

ABSTRACT: Illusory health beliefs are ill-founded, erroneous notions about well-being. They are important as they can influence allied attitudes, actions, and behaviors to the detriment of personal and societal welfare. Noting this, and the prevalence of paranormal beliefs in contemporary Western society, researchers developed the Paranormal Health Beliefs Scale (PHBS). Modification of the PHBS for use with a United Kingdom-based sample resulted in the instrument broadening to incorporate illusory rather than merely paranormal health beliefs. The present study psychometrically assessed the emergent Illusory Health Beliefs Scale (IHBS). The principal objective was to validate the IHBS using a large, representative sample. Eight hundred and fifty participants (360 males, 482 females, eight non-binary)

SUBMITTER: Denovan A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11440939 | biostudies-literature | 2024

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature