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Relationship of cyberchondria to hypochondriac beliefs and internet use

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 August 2021

S. Kumchenko ,
N. Rostovzeva ,
E. Rasskazova  and
A. Tkhostov
S. Kumchenko*
Affiliation:
Clinical Psychology, Moscow State University, Moscow, Russian Federation
N. Rostovzeva
Affiliation:
Faculty Of Psychology, Lomonosov MSU, Moscow, Russian Federation
E. Rasskazova
Affiliation:
Clinical Psychology, Moscow State University, Moscow, Russian Federation
A. Tkhostov
Affiliation:
Faculty Of Psychology, Lomonosov MSU, Moscow, Russian Federation
*
*Corresponding author.

Abstract

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Introduction

Although cyberchondria was suggested as a separate phenomenon (Starcevic, Berle, 2013, Starcevic, 2017), it is by definition related to both health anxiety, general hypochondriac beliefs and behavior and Internet use (Baumgartner and Hartmann, 2011, Eastin and Guinsler, 2006, Singh and Brown 2014).

Objectives

The aim was to reveal relationship between cyberchondria in adult Internet users, Internet use and hypochondriac beliefs and behavior.

Methods

126 adults (18-70 years old) filled The Cyberchondria Severity Scale (CSS, McElroy, Shevlin, 2014), checklist of activities about health online, Scale for Assessing Illness Behavior (Rief et al., 2001), Cognitions About Body and Health Questionnaire (Rief et al., 1998).

Results

Compulsion, Distress, Excessiveness, Reassuarance Seeking scales are related to various health-related activities online including both specialized (medical web-sites) and non-specialized (Wikipedia) ones (r=.25-.48, p<.01). Compulsion is closely related to surfing in social networks (r=.41, p<.01), excessiveness – to viewing of illnesses-related pictures (r=.48, p<.01) and reassurance seeking – to reading of online reports (r=.47, p<.01). Cyberchondria is related both to health anxiety (r=.37), hypochondriac behavior (r=.19-.41), beliefs about autonomic sensations, bodily weakness, intolerance to sensations and somatosensory ampliphication (r=.25-.31).

Conclusions

In general population, different aspects of cyberchondria seem to reflect health anxiety and hypochondriac beliefs but are differently related to different forms of online behavior including use of more or less specialized web-sites. Research is supported by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research, project No. 20-013-00799.

Keywords

Internetcyberchondriahypochondriac beliefs
Type
Abstract
Information
European Psychiatry , Volume 64 , Special Issue S1: Abstracts of the 29th European Congress of Psychiatry , April 2021 , pp. S186 - S187
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the European Psychiatric Association
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