Hypochondriacal concerns: The roles of raw and calibrated medical knowledge

Abstract

Based on similarities between hypochondriacal concerns and the ‘medical students' syndrome’ factual medical knowledge was identified as one factor important to the understanding of hypochondriacal concerns. The relationship between factual medical knowledge and hypochondriacal concerns was assessed in a sample of 58 volunteer participants. Four domains of factual medical knowledge were examined: anatomy, vital signs, disease aetiology and symptomatology. These domains of knowledge were assessed in terms of raw scores and the degree of knowledge calibration (people's accuracy in judging what they know). Hypochondriacal concerns were assessed using the three dimensions of the Whiteley Index (disease fear, disease conviction and bodily preoccupations) Results indicated a number of associations between levels of medical knowledge and the dimensions of hypochondria. Bodily preoccupations were associated with a tendency towards over-confidence in knowledge about anatomy (i.e. subjects thought they knew more than they actually did), whereas disease fear and disease conviction were both associated with increased levels of knowledge about disease aetiology.