Investigation of health anxiety and related factors in Chinese patients with physical disease

Abstract

Nurses should pay more attention to the HA of patients with physical diseases. Appropriate psychological interventions need to be used to improve patients' HA and QoL.

Health anxiety in medical employees: A multicentre study

“…Previous research suggests that HA is common in individuals with physical diseases. 2,28 We found that extraversion was negatively correlated with HA, which suggests that extraversion should protect individuals against HA. These findings support those of previous studies.…”

“…For example, our previous study found that HA prevalence levels varied by clinic: cardiology (47.69%) had the highest prevalence, followed by rheumatology (47.17%), neurology (42.62%), rehabilitation (41.94%) and endocrinology (34.48%). 2 One study found that 8% to 11% of genitourinary patients had HA. 15 We found that HA was more prevalent in medical employees than reported in these previous studies, and higher than in some patients.…”

“…1 Epidemiological research has confirmed that HA is a common mental symptom associated with the negative interpretation of and fears about the meaning of both ordinary and unusual bodily sensations. 2,3 Health anxious individuals display dysfunctional patterns of response to illness information and may be deficient in protective coping strategies. 4 The characteristic behaviours of patients diagnosed with HA are often associated with substantial economic costs because such patients repeatedly consult doctors, seek additional tests and search textbooks or the Internet for information.…”

“…Our previous study reported that life satisfaction, neuroticism and alexithymia predicted HA in nursing students, 10 and there is evidence that life quality and neuroticism predict HA in patients with physical diseases. 2 Lee et al 11 demonstrated that individuals with somatic symptoms report high HA.…”

Somatosensory amplification, health anxiety and pain catastrophizing in individuals with chronic musculoskeletal system pain

“…Health anxiety (SA) is defined as a multidimensional concept with cognitive, emotional and behavioral dimensions (20). Epidemiological research, on the other hand, defines the health anxiety as the fear of both ordinary and unusual bodily sensations, negative interpretation of fears and mental symptoms associated with fears (22). The individual believes that his/her health problems are not taken seriously enough and develops wrong strategies to deal with his/her health problems.…”