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Psicologia, Saúde & Doenças

Print version ISSN 1645-0086

Psic., Saúde & Doenças vol.6 no.1 Lisboa July 2005

 

Efeitos da Modernidade na Saúde:

Adaptação e Validação da Modern Health Worries Scale para a População Portuguesa

Nuno Correia Alves* & Maria João Figueiras

Departamento de Psicologia do Instituto Piaget, Almada, Portugal

 

RESUMO: As possíveis consequências de aspectos relacionados com a modernidade, tais como alimentos geneticamente modificados, poluição ambiental, pesticidas, telemóveis e cabos eléctricos de alta tensão têm, com regularidade, sido apresentadas nas revistas generalistas e outros media. Este estudo teve como objectivos a tradução e adaptação experimental da escala de preocupações sobre os efeitos da modernidade na saúde (Petrie et al., 2001), e a caracterização destas preocupações na população portuguesa. A investigação desenvolveu-se em dois momentos: estudo piloto com 45 participantes e estudo definitivo com 1113 participantes. As correlações teste - re-teste são satisfatórias para todos os itens. Após a análise de componentes principais foi definida uma solução com 28 itens, distribuídos em quatro factores que explicam 64% da variância total. Os valores de consistência interna revelaram-se elevados nas sub-escalas e na escala total, quer no estudo piloto quer no definitivo. Estes resultados são congruentes com os encontrados pelos autores da escala original e sugerem que esta escala contribui para alargar o leque de variáveis que podem influenciar os comportamentos de saúde da população portuguesa.

Palavras chave: Adaptação de escala, Afectividade negativa, Modernidade, Preocupações, Saúde.

 

The Modern Health Worries Scale:

Adaptation for the Portuguese Population

ABSTRACT: The aim of this study was to develop a Portuguese version of the modern health worries scale (Petrie et al., 2001), in order to study what is the nature and structure of these worries in a Portuguese sample. The consequences of features of modernity, such as genetically modified food, environmental pollution, pesticides, cell phones and high tension power lines, are routinely presented on popular magazines and other media. The study was developed in two stages: (1) a pilot study with 45 participants and (2) a study with 1113 participants, recruited from different working environments across the country. The test-retest correlations are good for all items. The principal component analysis produced a 28-item solution in four factors, explaining 64 % of the total variance. The internal consistency was high in all the sub-scales and in total scale, both on the pilot study and on the definitive study. These results are consistent with those found by the authors of the original scale, and suggest that this measure will enhance the scope of variables that can influence the health behaviours of the Portuguese population.

Key words: Health, Modernity, Negative affectivity, Scale adaptation, Worries.

 

Texto completo disponível apenas em PDF.

Full text only available in PDF format.

 

 

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*Contactar para E-mail: nalves@almada.ipiaget.org