Cyberchondria: Overlap with health anxiety and unique relations with impairment, quality of life, and service utilization
Open accessAbstract
Cyberchondria refers to a clinical phenomenon in which repeated Internet searches regarding medical information result in excessive concerns about physical health. Cyberchondria is positively associated with symptoms of health anxiety, though it remains unclear as to whether cyberchondria poses a unique public burden. The current study replicated previous findings regarding the relationship between cyberchondria and health anxiety, and extended those findings to examine the extent to which health anxiety and cyberchondria may be differentially associated with public health outcomes, including impairment, quality of life, and service utilization. Community participants (N = 462) recruited via online crowdsourcing completed a battery of self-report questionnaires assessing cyberchondria, health anxiety, and measures of public health outcomes, including the WHOQOL and SDS. Bifactor latent variable modeling indicated that cyberchondria was closely related to, yet importantly distinct from, health anxiety. Moreover, when accounting for overlap with health anxiety, cyberchondria was associated with increased functional impairment and healthcare utilization. Results provide further support for the identification of cyberchondria as a distinct set of clinical symptoms that may pose a significant public health burden. Future research should determine ways in which to treat and/or prevent symptoms.
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The CSS subscale reassurance showed a stronger association with the use of physical health care (β=.70) than with mental health care (β=.50) over the past 60 days.
“Using structural equation modeling, the CSS subscale reassurance showed a stronger association with the use of physical health care (β=.70) than with mental health care (β=.50) over the past 60 days [64].”
From Conceptualizations of cyberchondria and relations to the anxiety spectrum: Systematic review and meta-analysis (2021) · cites this paper as [64]
When accounting for HA, CSS was not associated with decreased quality of life.
“Interestingly, when accounting for HA, CSS was not associated with decreased quality of life, which was operationalized as one’s overall level of contentment and satisfaction regarding 4 domains: physical and psychological health, social relationships, and environment (World Health Organization Quality of Life Assessment [95]).”
From Conceptualizations of cyberchondria and relations to the anxiety spectrum: Systematic review and meta-analysis (2021) · cites this paper as [64]
The CSS subscale excessiveness was negatively associated with mental health care use (β=-.49; P<.001), indicating that individuals who repeatedly engage in health-related internet use report less use of mental health care.
“In addition, the subscale excessiveness was negatively associated with mental health care use (β=–.49; P<.001), indicating that individuals who repeatedly engage in health-related internet use report less use of mental health care.”
From Conceptualizations of cyberchondria and relations to the anxiety spectrum: Systematic review and meta-analysis (2021) · cites this paper as [64]
Cyberchondria was strongly associated with greater functional impairment even when controlling for the effects of HA.
“In line with this, it was found that cyberchondria was strongly associated with greater functional impairment even when controlling for the effects of HA (operationalized by the SHAI [68]) [64].”
From Conceptualizations of cyberchondria and relations to the anxiety spectrum: Systematic review and meta-analysis (2021) · cites this paper as [64]
Cyberchondria is associated with health anxiety.
“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 [19]
Cyberchondria is closely linked to health anxiety.
“This finding builds on previous work reporting that cyberchondria is closely linked to health anxiety [3, 7-9, 19, 21, 22]”
From What are the Implications of Excessive Internet Searches for Medical Information by Orthopaedic Patients? (2019) · cites this paper as [19]
Intolerance of uncertainty is associated with health anxiety.
“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 [19]
The Introduction says cyberchondria is associated with health anxiety and, separately, with intolerance of uncertainty even when controlling for health anxiety. Neither that passage nor the Discussion establishes whether intolerance of uncertainty itself is associated with health anxiety; searches for that relationship found no direct result in our copy. Page numbers were not provided. (LLM, conf=0.75)
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- Authors
- Mathes, B. M., Norr, A. M., Allan, N. P., Albanese, B. J., & Schmidt, N. B.
- Affiliations
- Florida State University (US)
- VA Puget Sound Health Care System (US)
- Ohio University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Schmidt, Norman B.
- Venue
- Psychiatry Research
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2018-03
- Volume
- 261
- Pages
- 204-211
- ISSN
- 0165-1781 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2781543247
- Semantic Scholar
- cf6569cdea035d9574c31246335fb8a1ae264174
- Cited by
- 209
- References
- 38
- Citations by year
- 2026: 28 · 2025: 36 · 2024: 27 · 2023: 29 · 2022: 30 · 2021: 20 · 2020: 25 · 2019: 10 · 2018: 4
- FWCI
- 22.52
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- Locations
- Psychiatry Research (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institute of Mental Health (T32MH093311)
- 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 › Clinical Psychology › COVID-19 and Mental Health
- Keywords
- cyberchondria, health anxiety, functional disability, quality of life, health care utilization, public health burden, online health information seeking
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Anxiety, Female, Humans, Hypochondriasis, Male, Middle Aged, Patient Acceptance of Health Care, Quality of Life, Internet, Consumer Health Information, Information Seeking Behavior, Self Report
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