Development of the Cyberchondria Severity Scale in Pregnancy (CSS-P)

Objective With the increase in internet use during pregnancy, many women frequently search for information about their own health and their baby's health from online sources. However, excessive and repetitive online health searches can increase anxiety and lead to cyberchondria. There is no pregnancy-specific measurement tool to assess the severity of cyberchondria in pregnant women. This study was conducted to develop the Pregnancy Cyberchondria Severity Scale (PCSS) and evaluate its psychometric properties. Methods The study was conducted in three phases: (1) creation of the item pool, (2) preliminary evaluation of the items, and (3) refinement of the scale and evaluation of its psychometric properties. Instrument development guidelines were used to assess the content validity, construct validity, internal consistency, and stability over time of the instrument. Data were collected between August 2025 and December 2025 to evaluate the psychometric properties of the CSS-P. Results Exploratory factor analysis revealed that the CSS-P consists of 5 factors and 21 items explaining 65.27% of the total variance. Confirmatory factor analysis revealed that the proposed model showed an excellent level of fit (GFI = 0.943; CFI = 0.994; TLI = 0.993; RMSEA = 0.024; 90% CI: 0.007–0.036). Cronbach's alpha coefficients for the total score and subscales of the scale were above 0.90. The parallel test method was used to evaluate the correlation between the CSS-P and the cyberchondria severity scale. The findings showed that the CSS-P has high internal consistency and stability over time. Conclusion CSS-P is a valid and reliable measure in terms of its psychometric properties. The 21-item scale consists of five factors: Difficulty in Controlling, Impairment in Daily Life, Compulsive Online Searching Behavior, Distrust of Online Information, and Anxiety. Impact CSS-P can be used in clinical practice to identify pregnant women with excessive and maladaptive online health search behavior and to evaluate the effectiveness of interventions aimed at supporting healthier information-seeking behaviors during pregnancy.