The Short Health Anxiety Inventory (SHAI) was developed by Paul Salkovskis, Katharine Rimes, Hannah Warwick and David Clark in 2002 as the short form of their Health Anxiety Inventory. Each of its 18 questions offers four statements, and you choose the one that fits you best. The first 14 questions ask about worry about health, awareness of bodily sensations and relief after a doctor’s reassurance. The last four ask how bad a serious illness would be for you. Each answer scores 0 to 3 points and the total runs from 0 to 54.
This is not a diagnosis
The inventory shows how much you worry about your health, not whether you are ill. Health anxiety is diagnosed by a professional after a conversation. Worry does not make a symptom less real: if something physical bothers you, see a doctor too.
What happens to your answers
Your score is calculated right in your browser. Your answers reach our server only if you ask for your result by email: we write the email and do not keep them.
Source: SHAI: Salkovskis P. M., Rimes K. A., Warwick H. M. C., Clark D. M., 2002, The Health Anxiety Inventory: development and validation of scales for the measurement of health anxiety and hypochondriasis, Psychological Medicine 32(5), 843-853, DOI 10.1017/S0033291702005822.
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