Identification of “sensitive” individuals
worry
During the baseline examination, the participants filled out questionnaires including questions on health status and specific sensitivity scales enabling a retrospective characterization of the study group in terms of identifying “sensitive” individuals. The latter had no relevance for the in- or exclusion of individuals.One of the sensitivity scales was the Discomfort Intolerance Scale (DIS) that measures the level of agreement with statements about tolerance of discomfortFrom these data a relative cut-off score was calculated to divide subjects into either lower or higher “sensitive” persons. Except for the EWS, the sensitivity factors were median-split: MD(DIS) ≥ 17; MD(DIS-I) ≥ 4; MD(DIS-A) ≥ 8; MD(PANAS-NA) ≥ 16; MD(COSS) ≥ 10; MD(CSS) ≥ 50. Regarding the EWS, subjects were counted as subjects with heightened environmental worry if they partly or fully agreed on at least one of the five items