Psychometric Properties of the Short Scale Anxiety Sensitivity Index Among Adults with Chronic Respiratory Disease.

Approximately one-third of adults with chronic respiratory disease (CRD) have comorbid depressive and anxiety disorders; yet these disorders are often unrecognized in this patient population. Transdiagnostic processes such as anxiety sensitivity (AS) are useful for identifying mechanisms underlying psychological and heath conditions. The Short-Scale AS Index (SSASI) is a brief self-report measure of AS which has potential clinical utility among CRD populations to evaluate psychological distress and inform comprehensive care. The present study investigated the psychometric properties of the SSASI among adults with CRDs. Participants were recruited from a web-based panel of adults with CRDs (n = 768; 49.3% female; 57.8% White) including adults with asthma only (n = 230), COPD only (n = 321), or co-occurring asthma and COPD (n = 217). Participants completed a battery of self-report questionnaires assessing psychological and medical symptoms. Analyses were conducted to examine the factor structure and measurement invariance across CRD groups. Convergent validity and criterion validity of the SSASI were assessed within each group. Results supported partial measurement invariance across CRD groups. The SSASI demonstrated high reliability, convergent validity, and criterion validity with each CRD group. Findings from this study and existing work indicate that the SSASI is an effective and economical assessment tool for identifying patients CRD who may benefit from psychological interventions to reduce AS.

The influence of emotion regulation and family involvement on diabetes distress among adults with type 2 diabetes.

Adults with diabetes frequently experience diabetes related distress, which is associated with negative health outcomes. Family members are commonly involved in patients' diabetes self-management. However, family involvement can have helpful and/or harmful effects on patients' diabetes outcomes. Use of interpersonal strategies to regulate negative emotions may play a role in patients' interactions with family members and experience of diabetes distress. This study examined the influences of interpersonal emotion regulation and family and friend involvement on diabetes distress among 373 adults with type 2 diabetes. Two separate three-step sequential linear regression models were used to test the main and interactive effects of harmful and helpful family involvement and interpersonal emotion regulation on diabetes distress. Greater use of interpersonal strategies to regulate negative emotions (p = .006) and greater harmful family involvement (p < .001) were significantly associated with greater diabetes distress. Interpersonal emotion regulation moderated the relationship of helpful (p = .007), but not harmful (p = .171) family involvement on diabetes distress. Specifically, greater helpful family involvement was associated with lower diabetes distress among adults with low (p = .017) but not high (p = .419) use of interpersonal strategies to regulate negative emotions. Helpful family involvement appears to be associated with lower diabetes distress, but only among patients with low levels of interpersonal emotion regulation.