Scale Analysis

The Cardiac Anxiety Questionnaire (CAQ-18) was developed by Eifert and colleagues in 2000 and represents the general form of the questionnaire, which in its original version included 16 items and was eventually developed into a self-report questionnaire of 18 items. Overall, the CAQ appears to assess heart-focused anxiety (HFA) and therefore serves as a useful tool for identifying patients with increased HFA, both with and without heart disease.

Purpose of the Scale

The Cardiac Anxiety Questionnaire was designed to assess heart-focused anxiety (HFA)—that is, the fear of cardiac-related sensations. Essentially, the CAQ derives from Reiss’s (1986) model, which concerns the fear of heart disease, chest pain, and other cardiac-related sensations such as discomfort or palpitations.

Scoring of Items

The Cardiac Anxiety Questionnaire consists of 18 self-report items, each rated on a five-point Likert scale ranging from 0 (never) to 5 (always).

Statistical Analysis

The total score of the scale is calculated as the mean of the frequency ratings for each individual item, dividing the total sum by the number of items in the questionnaire. Subscale scores are calculated in the same manner for each group of items in each subscale. Higher CAQ scores indicate greater anxiety regarding cardiac functioning.

Validity and Reliability

The Cardiac Anxiety Questionnaire demonstrates internal consistency and has good convergent validity. It is used both in patients with cardiac diseases and in healthy populations to investigate the fear of illness. The scale has been adapted for the Greek population, showing a Cronbach’s alpha coefficient of 0.825.

References

Eifert, G. H., Thompson, R. N., Zvolensky, M. J., Edwards, K., Frazer, N. L., Haddad, J. W., & Davig, J. (2000). The cardiac anxiety questionnaire: development and preliminary validity. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 38(10), 1039–1053.