Health anxiety model of cyberchondria, fears, obsessions, sleep quality, and negative affect during COVID-19

Abstract

The aim of the study was to explore the relationships among cyberchondria, fear of COVID-19, health anxiety, obsessions, sleep quality, and negative affect in a national community sample of Turkish participants. A sample of 8,276 volunteers, aged between 18 and 65, were recruited via an online platform. The Perceived Vulnerability about Diseases Questionnaire, Fear of COVID-19 Scale, Cyberchondria Severity Scale, Short Health Anxiety Inventory, Depression Stress Anxiety Scale-21, Obsessive–Compulsive Inventory–Revised, and Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index were completed by participants. Data were analyzed using mixture structural equation modelling approach. Results revealed that perceived vulnerability to disease was found to be positively related with cyberchondria, poor sleep quality, health anxiety, and obsessive–compulsive symptoms. Negative affect was positively associated with obsessive–compulsive symptoms, fears of COVID-19, cyberchondria severity, and poor sleep quality. Additionally, fear of COVID-19 was positively related to health anxiety. Also, cyberchondria severity was found to be positively associated with poor sleep quality and obsessive–compulsive symptoms. Mixture analysis classified participants into six latent classes: 1) Risk-Aversive Healthy Group, 2) Incautious Healthy Group, 3) Infection Obsessions Group, 4) Health Anxiety Group, 5) Negative Affect Group, and 6) General Psychopathology Group. The national survey data showed that perceived vulnerability to diseases, negative affect, fear of COVID-19, cyberchondria, health anxiety, obsessive–compulsive symptoms, and sleep quality appeared to be at the center of pandemic health anxiety.

Health-Related Cognitions and Metacognitions Indirectly Contribute to the Relationships Between Impulsivity, Fear of COVID-19, and Cyberchondria

“…The respondents are asked to rate the items on a five-point scale and the higher score reflects the higher severity of cyberchondria (McElroy et al, 2019 ). Turkish form of the CSS-12 has original factor structure and good psychometric characteristics (Yalçın et al, 2022 ). The Turkish version of the CSS-12 revealed high internal consistency on the present data with Cronbach’s alphas ranging from 0.72 to 0.89.…”

“…Supporting these findings, Akbari et al ( 2021 ) converged a full mediation structural model in which relationship between COVID-19 and health anxiety was mediated by intolerance of uncertainty, emotional regulation capability and metacognitions, accounting for 71% of the unique variance of health anxiety. In a more recent national community survey conducted among a sample of 8,276 Turkish volunteers, Yalçın et al ( 2022 ) reported that perceived vulnerability to diseases significantly contributed to cyberchondria and indirectly predicted deterioration in sleep quality via cyberchondria.…”

Relationships between fear of COVID‐19, cyberchondria, intolerance of uncertainty, and obsessional probabilistic inferences: A structural equation model

“…The higher the score, the higher the severity of cyberchondria (McElroy et al., 2019 ). The CSS‐12 was adapted to Turkish by Yalçın, Boysan, Eşkisu, and Çam ( 2022 ) and yielded good validity and reliability with Cronbach's alphas ranging from 0.78 to 0.94. In the present study, The Turkish version of the CSS‐12 was found to have high internal consistency with Cronbach's alphas ranging from 0.71 to 0.87.…”

Cyberchondria, but not preventive behavior, mediates the relationship between fear of COVID-19 and somatic burden: Evidence from Russia

“…These trends worsened during the COVID-19 pandemic, triggering an increase in health anxiety and a search for information about a mysterious and frightening infection (17). Persons with a high fear of pandemic often search the Internet for information about COVID-19 disease, so fear of COVID-19 was closely associated with cyberchondria (18)(19)(20).…”