Resum
Perceived Vulnerability to Disease may be defined as the beliefs
about personal susceptibility to the transmission of infectious diseases and
the emotional discomfort associated with the potential disease transmission.
To evaluate these beliefs, the Perceived Vulnerability to Disease Scale (PVD)
has been used in most studies. The aim of Study 1 was to validate the PVD
questionnaire to the Spanish population. The sample was made up of 744
university students from all over Spain. Confirmatory factor analysis
revealed that the items on the short version of the questionnaire corresponding
to an interrelated two-factor model (perceived infectability and germ
aversion) showed the best fit of all the tested models. In Study 2, scales to
measure antifat attitudes, disgust and negative attitudes towards AIDS were
used to analyse the criterion validity of the PVD questionnaire. The sample
was made up of 434 university students. It was found that germ aversion was
positively related with antifat attitudes, disgust and negative attitudes
towards AIDS. In light of these results, we conclude that the short version
of the questionnaire has good psychometric properties and can be used by the
scientific community to measure Perceived Vulnerability to Disease.