Perceived Vulnerability to Disease Questionnaire: Factor structure, psychometric properties and gender differences

Abstract

The evolutionary psychological approach links evolved mechanisms of disease-avoidance to prejudices against individuals perceived as a threat to health. Perceived vulnerability to disease works as an adaptive strategy which explains why individuals perceived as a source of contagion are avoided. The self-report Perceived Vulnerability to Disease Questionnaire, PVDQ, is one of the most widely used to measure subjective vulnerability to disease, however, neither test–retest reliability has been studied nor has factor structure been confirmed so far in this questionnaire. In the present study, a sample of 878 participants completed the PVDQ. Subsamples also completed different scales measuring hypochondria, health fears, beliefs and attitudes, personality traits, locus of control and obsessions, in order to obtain concurrent and discriminant validity. Item relationships, Exploratory and Confirmatory Factor Analyses, reliability and validity analyses were all obtained. Our results highlight two strong, valid, and stable factors: Perceived Infectability and Germ Aversion. However, the Germ Aversion factor only showed adequate confirmatory factorial indices and high temporal stability when items 11 and 13 were removed, but failed to obtain acceptable internal consistency. Gender differences have also been studied in the present work. Implications and directions for future research in the improvement of PVDQ are discussed.