The reassurance questionnaire: comparison of the latent structure in university, community, and medical samples

The Reassurance Questionnaire (RQ; Speckens, Spinhoven, Van Hemert, & Bolk, ( 2000 ) is a self-report measure designed to assess the extent to which patients feel reassured by their attending physicians. While the original RQ was validated in Dutch, the invariance of the factor structure has not been examined in the English version of the RQ. In the current study, the English RQ was completed by university (n = 459), community (n = 244), and medical samples (n = 281). Unlike the original one-factor solution found for the Dutch RQ, a two-factor solution for the English RQ was found for all three samples. The two factors were labeled: (1) Doubt in Physician, and (2) Persistent Health Anxiety. Item loadings were invariant across the community and medical samples. Implications of the findings along with directions for future research are discussed.