Due to the many different conceptualizations of anxiety, it does not come as a surprise to find several thousand publications that seem to contradict each other. Thus, it is the standard in the field. The self-report inventory consists of 20 items to assess state anxiety, and another 20 items to assess trait anxiety. Relation to Health Trait anxiety has been found related to health. However, the association between these two variables is much more complex.
Anxiety can be the cause of illness, or anxiety can be an effect of illness.
Anxiety results, for example, in tension headache, dyspepsia, peptic ulcers, hypertension, etc. In addition to somatization, another effect of anxiety is health risk behavior . Anxious individuals delay health care seeking, they avoid screenings that might produce unfavorable or threatening information. This is the case, for example, in HIV testing or mammography screenings. A third effect of anxiety lies in self-reports of ill health .