Table 2.

Critical attribute categories and coding guidance for categorizing the four psychological constructs.

Critical attribute category	Critical attribute definition and coding guidance	Examplesa
Conceptualization	Conceptualization of the four constructs is demonstrated in the following four ways: • Characteristics. The description or statement containing defining indicators that aid in determining which phenomena match the construct and which do not. • Theoretical features. The presence of specific features or indications in the theoretical model/ framework that aid in understanding the construct. • Triggers. The events or antecedents that are presented prior to the specific phenomenon of the construct. • Correlates. The factors that have been shown to have an association with the construct. Only correlates that are descriptions of primary study findings will be coded. The direction of the relationship will not be described.	Characteristics • “FCR is defined as the “fear or worry that the cancer will return or progress in the same organ or in another part of the body.” [13] Theoretical features • “According to Leventhal's self-regulation model of illness, an individual's level of FCR is determined by his/her illness representation through cognition and emotional processing.” [7] Triggers • “Uncertainty is generated when components of illness or treatment possess the characteristics of inconsistency, randomness, complexity, unpredictability, and lack of information in situations of importance to the individual” [41] Correlates • “Social constraints demonstrated a significant indirect effect on FCR through the mechanism of cognitive processing.” [69] • “Anxiety was positively associated with depression and symptom severity.” [8]
Measurements	• Instruments designed to determine the quantity of a variable within the concepts (i.e., questionnaires, inventories, scales, surveys, and interviews). Both quantitative and qualitative measurements will be documented.	• “Health anxiety is measured using the Short Health Anxiety Inventory (SHAI), it demonstrates good reliability and validity and discriminates between individuals with and without hypochondriasis.” [46] • “The Mishel Uncertainty in Illness Inventory Scale-Community version (MUII) is used to measure uncertainty. The MUII is a 33-item scale that measures an individual's clarity, understanding, and certainty regarding their illness.” [63] • “FCR was assessed in a semi structured interviews: women described their thoughts and feelings regarding the possibility of recurrence, the nature of their fears, the circumstances under which their fears were most salient (i.e., what triggered their fears), and their efforts to cope with those fears.” [77]

^arefer to Supplementary File 2 for a complete listing of the references.