ArticleFrontiers in psychology2025
The Illusory Health Beliefs Scale: validation using exploratory structural equation modeling and multidimensional Rasch analysis.
Article in Frontiers in psychology, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.
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Who cites it
1 citing paper in PubMed.
- The Relationship Between Illusory Health Beliefs, Recommended Health Behaviours, and Complementary and Alternative Medicine: An Investigation Across Multiple Time Points.Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
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Authors and funding
3 authors.
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Abstract
The Illusory Health Beliefs Scale (IHBS) is a multidimensional instrument that evaluates endorsement of scientifically unsubstantiated, illusory health-oriented notions. These beliefs are important because they potentially influence attitudes/actions to the detriment of personal wellbeing/health. Preceding research examining IHBS item performance at the unidimensional subscale level identified five dimensions (Religious/Spiritual, Superstition, Precognitive, Health Myths, Skepticism), and an independent Health Pseudoscience subscale. The present paper extended latent structure analysis by employing exploratory structural equation modeling (ESEM) and multidimensional Rasch analysis. Concurrently, statistical appraisal tested convergent validity via relationships with related health-based constructs (i.e., health locus of control, HLC and beliefs about complementary and alternative medicine, CAM). A sample of 2,138 completed the IHBS (1,016 males, 1,113 females, seven non-binary, two preferred not to disclose). Following minor scale modification, ESEM reported good data-fit for a six-factor model. With the exception of Skepticism, which was negatively associated, IHBS subfactors correlated positively with HLC and CAM. These outcomes supported the supposition that the IHBS measures perceived and illusory health control. Rasch analysis designated sufficient multidimensionality and satisfactory subscale functioning. Strong associations indicated that IHBS dimensions assessed related but discrete aspects of illusory health beliefs. High associations among paranormal-based dimensions (Religious/Spiritual, Superstition, and Precognitive) suggested the need for greater content separation. Moreover, the poor reliability of Skepticism designated the need to develop a more efficacious assessment of this dimension.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.