Health Anxiety Test — Free 10-Question Self-Check
- Free
- 10 questions
- No sign-up
- Instant result
A free health anxiety self-check covering worry that bodily sensations mean serious illness, repeated checking and searching, and reassurance-seeking, in 10 questions. About 2 minutes, with a 0-30 score, a four-band interpretation and trends across repeat tests.
What's included
- Questions
- 10 items
- Price
- Free
- Areas measured
- Health Anxiety
The three strands of the 10 SHAS items
The Soundary Health Anxiety Scale (SHAS) looks at the past two weeks in 10 questions, which fall into three broad strands. The first is interpretation: reading minor bodily sensations such as headaches, sharp twinges or a racing heart as signs of serious illness. The second is checking: repeatedly looking up symptoms, or touching and examining your body. The third is reassurance-seeking: repeatedly asking family or people around you whether you are all right, or seeing doctors more often than usual.
It also asks whether you stay unconvinced even after being told test results are normal, whether thoughts of falling ill come up often during the day, whether health worries make it hard to focus on what you need to do, and whether worst-case scenarios keep playing in your mind. Each item is answered with one of four options, from “Not at all” (0) to “Almost always” (3), and the sum of 0–30 is your total. It takes about 2 minutes.
Beyond the number: the worry loop
The focus of this test is not whether you actually have symptoms, but how threatening those sensations feel to you. So when you read your score, it helps to note which kinds of items you answered “Often” or “Almost always” to. If the interpretation items are high, the way you take in bodily sensations may be the core issue right now; if the checking, searching and reassurance items are high, it may be behaviors that soothe the worry for a moment but end up feeding it.
Health anxiety often runs in a loop. You notice a sensation and worry starts; checking or seeking reassurance brings brief relief, but the same worry soon returns and you check again. If someone close to you has recently been ill, you have taken in a lot of health news, or you have been unusually tired or stressed, your score may come out higher than usual. The result is a screening reference, not a diagnosis.
Soundary’s own items, informed by Salkovskis
SHAS consists of items developed by Soundary with reference to health anxiety research frameworks such as the Health Anxiety Inventory (including its short form) of Salkovskis, Rimes, Warwick and Clark (2002). It is not an official edition of any standardized instrument, so its scores and bands cannot be compared directly with those of the original scale. In this line of research, health anxiety is treated as a pattern formed by the tendency to read bodily sensations as threatening together with the checking and reassurance-seeking that keep that reading alive.
Because health anxiety is a pattern of thinking and behavior, it can change with practice. After spending a while pausing when a worry rises and asking whether the evidence is really enough, retaking the test and comparing it with your previous result can make the change visible. That said, new or persistent physical symptoms should be checked by a doctor first, whatever your score, and if the worry is badly shaking your daily life, seek help from a mental health professional.
How scores are interpreted
Health Anxiety
This is the total score combining the anxiety of interpreting bodily sensations as illness, repeated checking/searching, and reassurance-seeking tendencies. It focuses on 'how threateningly you perceive' the sensations rather than the physical symptoms themselves. A higher score indicates a stronger tendency toward health anxiety.
0–7pts · Stable
You are accepting your bodily sensations relatively comfortably. You appear to be in a stable state where health worries do not significantly disrupt your daily life. Maintain your current balance and check back occasionally.
8–15pts · Mild
You show a tendency to occasionally connect bodily sensations to illness and worry about them. It is not yet a major disruption to your daily life, but when worries repeat, it helps to pause and practice asking yourself, 'Is there enough evidence for this right now?' Take the test again after some time to observe any changes.
16–22pts · Moderate
You tend to interpret bodily sensations seriously, and your repeated checking, searching, and reassurance-seeking have increased. As this can be a burden on your daily life, we recommend maintaining a regular lifestyle and, if necessary, talking to a professional. This result is for reference only and is not a diagnosis.
23–30pts · High
Your health anxiety, checking, and reassurance-seeking tendencies are quite high. It may be overwhelming to handle alone, so we recommend seeking help from a professional, such as a psychiatrist. This is a screening result, not a diagnosis, so please consult a professional for an accurate assessment and support.
Sample questions
- 1. When I feel minor bodily sensations (e.g., headaches, twinges, palpitations), I worry that it might be a serious illness.
- 2. When I feel something unusual in my body, I interpret it as a sign of a serious disease.
- 3. I repeatedly search the internet or other resources for symptoms because I am worried about my health.
- 4. I repeatedly touch or examine my body to check my physical condition.
Please choose the option that best describes how often each statement applied to you over the past 2 weeks. There are no right or wrong answers, so please answer comfortably as it comes to mind.
FAQ
How do I interpret my health anxiety score?
Each of the 10 items scores 0-3, for a total of 0-30. In this test, 0-7 suggests a stable level, 8-15 a mild health anxiety tendency, 16-22 moderate, and 23-30 high. The score gauges how threatening bodily sensations feel to you; it says nothing about whether an actual illness is present, and it is not a diagnosis.
At what score should I seek professional help?
If you stay at 16 or above and the time spent checking, searching and seeking reassurance keeps growing and burdening daily life, consider counselling; at 23 or above, seeing a mental health professional is recommended. That said, new or persistent physical symptoms should first be checked by a doctor. If tests keep coming back clear yet the same worry returns, that is the point where the help you need is for the anxiety, not the body.
I keep googling my symptoms. Is that okay?
Searching brings brief relief, but search results over-represent rare serious diseases, so it usually feeds the anxiety. The loop of searching for reassurance, feeling more anxious, then searching again is often called cyberchondria. Try capping searches, say once a day for 10 minutes, and instead write questions down to ask a doctor all at once. If you still cannot stop, counselling that targets the anxiety helps.
How often should I retake this test?
This test asks about the past two weeks, so every two weeks is a sensible interval. If you have started practising worry-management skills or counselling, logging it every 2-4 weeks shows whether the score is coming down. Be careful, though, not to let the test itself become another checking ritual; keep to the schedule you set. The saved trend becomes objective evidence of whether the worry is genuinely easing.
Source
The items in this test are a self-check adaptation based on the original instrument and literature below: These are items developed by Soundary with reference to health anxiety research paradigms such as the Health Anxiety Inventory (HAI/Short Health Anxiety Inventory) of Salkovskis PM, Rimes KA, Warwick HMC & Clark DM (2002). This is not an official edition of any standardized instrument; it is a screening tool for reference only.
Related tests
This is a self-screening tool, not a medical diagnosis. If the result concerns you, please consult a mental health professional.