The DOI matches its Crossref record; 72 of the 72 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
The curious case of cyberchondria: A longitudinal study on the reciprocal relationship between health anxiety and online health information seeking
Open accessAbstract
The current study is the first to longitudinally investigate the reciprocal relationship between online health information seeking and health anxiety, i.e., cyberchondria. Expectations were that health anxious individuals who go online to find health information, experience an increase in health anxiety, which in turn will reinforce online seeking. A 4-wave longitudinal survey study among 5322 respondents aged 16-93 was conducted. Our results showed that individuals who are more health anxious than others, search online for health information more. Moreover, the results provided initial evidence for the expected reciprocal relationship between health anxiety and online health information seeking in respondents with non-clinical levels of health anxiety at the start of the study. However, this reciprocal relationship could not be found in a subsample of clinically health anxious individuals. Although for these individuals online health information seeking did not seem to exacerbate health anxiety levels, it might still serve as a maintaining factor of clinical health anxiety.
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“Following TePoel et al [81], we hypothesize that an illness-related bias may be of certain relevance regarding the moderating role of emotional outcomes.”
From Conceptualizations of cyberchondria and relations to the anxiety spectrum: Systematic review and meta-analysis (2021) · cites this paper as [81]
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredThe source backs part of the claim, not all of it — or backs it for a different population, condition or comparison.
In the citing paper
“Although the number of internet searches for medical information likely increases every day, very little research to date has examined cyberchondria and how it relates to health.”
From What are the Implications of Excessive Internet Searches for Medical Information by Orthopaedic Patients? (2019) · cites this paper as [34]
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredThe source backs part of the claim, not all of it — or backs it for a different population, condition or comparison.
In the citing paper
“The studies available [7, 9, 31, 32, 34] include only medically healthy participants from the community, rather than patients with symptoms.”
From What are the Implications of Excessive Internet Searches for Medical Information by Orthopaedic Patients? (2019) · cites this paper as [34]
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredThe cited source says what the claim attributes to it.
In the citing paper
“and only one study [60] showed poor quality (score b 10).”
From Is cyberchondria a new transdiagnostic digital compulsive syndrome? A systematic review of the evidence (2020) · cites this paper as [60]
The cited source says what the claim attributes to it.
In the citing paper
“In the pathological HA group, changes in an individual’s HA score were not predicted by a change in health-related internet use 2 months earlier.”
From Conceptualizations of cyberchondria and relations to the anxiety spectrum: Systematic review and meta-analysis (2021) · cites this paper as [81]
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In the citing paper
“Thus, no evidence for a reciprocal relationship between HA and health-related internet use was found in individuals with pathological HA.”
From Conceptualizations of cyberchondria and relations to the anxiety spectrum: Systematic review and meta-analysis (2021) · cites this paper as [81]
The cited source says what the claim attributes to it.
In the citing paper
“In contrast, evidence for a reciprocal association was found in the nonclinical group with lower HA, such that increases in an individual’s HA were predicted by increases in health-related internet use and vice versa.”
From Conceptualizations of cyberchondria and relations to the anxiety spectrum: Systematic review and meta-analysis (2021) · cites this paper as [81]
The cited source says what the claim attributes to it.
In the citing paper
“Conversely, changes in an individual’s health-related internet use score were not predicted by changes in HA 2 months earlier.”
From Conceptualizations of cyberchondria and relations to the anxiety spectrum: Systematic review and meta-analysis (2021) · cites this paper as [81]
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“Cyberchondria and intolerance of uncertainty have been shown to be associated with health anxiety [3, 7-10, 19, 21, 22, 34]”
From What are the Implications of Excessive Internet Searches for Medical Information by Orthopaedic Patients? (2019) · cites this paper as [34]
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“health anxiety can be fueled by both cyberchondria [34] and intolerance of uncertainty [10, 12].”
From What are the Implications of Excessive Internet Searches for Medical Information by Orthopaedic Patients? (2019) · cites this paper as [34]
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“Longitudinal studies have shown that people with health anxiety (and other forms of anxiety) die prematurely and also tend to get significantly depressed if untreated; those who have had psychological treatment do not become depressed.16,25,26”
From Why health anxiety needs to be recognised in hospital practice (2020) · cites this paper as [26]
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredThe check wasn’t confident either way, so it gives no verdict — never disputed.
In the citing paper
“Cyberchondria and intolerance of uncertainty have been shown to be associated with health anxiety [3, 7-10, 19, 21, 22, 34]”
From What are the Implications of Excessive Internet Searches for Medical Information by Orthopaedic Patients? (2019) · cites this paper as [34]
Experimental — accuracy not yet measured
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Citations
Cites
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“As items of formative constructs are not interchangeable and should usually reveal low inter-correlations, measures of internal consistency are not relevant (Brown, 2015; Diamantopoulos & Siguaw, 2006).”
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Curran, P. J., & Bauer, D. J. (2011) · Annual Review of Psychology · doi:10.1146/annurev.psych.093008.100356 · Cited by 2,056
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Cyberchondria: Challenges of Problematic Online Searches for Health-Related Information
Starcevic, V. (2017) · Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics · doi:10.1159/000465525 · Cited by 231
Vismara, M., Caricasole, V., Starcevic, V., Cinosi, E., Dell'Osso, B., Martinotti, G., & Fineberg, N. A. (2020) · Comprehensive Psychiatry · doi:10.1016/j.comppsych.2020.152167 · Cited by 224
“Several studies have found that subjects with elevated health anxiety experience greater anxiety during and after online health searches and report more frequent and longer searches, compared to those with lower or normal levels of health anxiety [10,29,43,45,53,59].”
BackgroundMathes, B. M., Norr, A. M., Allan, N. P., Albanese, B. J., & Schmidt, N. B. (2018) · Psychiatry Research · doi:10.1016/j.psychres.2018.01.002 · Cited by 209
Recent Insights Into Cyberchondria
Starčević, V., Berle, D., & Arnáez, S. (2020) · Current Psychiatry Reports · doi:10.1007/s11920-020-01179-8 · Cited by 220
Social media in health communication: A literature review of information quality
Afful-Dadzie, E., Afful‐Dadzie, A., & Egala, S. B. (2021) · Health Information Management Journal · doi:10.1177/1833358321992683 · Cited by 195
Metadata
- Authors
- te Poel, F., Baumgartner, S. E., Hartmann, T., & Tanis, M.
- Affiliations
- University of Amsterdam (NL)
- Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (NL)
- Venue
- Journal of Anxiety Disorders
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2016-10
- Volume
- 43
- Pages
- 32-40
- ISSN
- 0887-6185 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2492112509
- Cited by
- 172
- References
- 72
- Citations by year
- 2026: 16 · 2025: 10 · 2024: 20 · 2023: 22 · 2022: 26 · 2021: 21 · 2020: 23 · 2019: 19 · 2018: 8 · 2017: 6 · 2016: 1
- FWCI
- 21.08
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- Journal of Anxiety Disorders (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- UvA-DARE (University of Amsterdam) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- VU Research Portal (submittedVersion)
- Data Archiving and Networked Services (DANS) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Data Archiving and Networked Services (DANS) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- Ellen Hamaker and Loes Keijsers for their valuable advice on the application of the random intercept cross-lagged panel model
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Health Professions › General Health Professions › Health Literacy and Information Accessibility
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Psychiatry and Mental health › Psychosomatic Disorders and Their Treatments
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Anxiety, Depression, Psychometrics, Treatment, Cognitive Processes
- Keywords
- cyberchondria, health anxiety, online health information seeking, bidirectional relationship, internet use
- MeSH terms
- Adolescent, Adult, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Anxiety, Anxiety Disorders, Female, Humans, Longitudinal Studies, Male, Middle Aged, Internet, Young Adult, Information Seeking Behavior
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