ArticleHeliyon2020
The mediating effect of the cyberchondria and anxiety sensitivity in the association between problematic internet use, metacognition beliefs, and fear of COVID-19 among Iranian online population.
Article in Heliyon, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. An erratum has been issued. Cited by 55 papers, 4 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
55 citing papers in PubMed, 4 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 117 citations in OpenAlex.
- A systematic review evaluating metacognitive beliefs in health anxiety and somatic distress.British journal of health psychology · 2022Pooled it
- Gender-specific estimates of sleep problems during the COVID-19 pandemic: Systematic review and meta-analysis.Journal of sleep research · 2022Pooled it
- A systematic review of metacognitions in Internet Gaming Disorder and problematic Internet, smartphone and social networking sites use.Clinical psychology & psychotherapy · 2021Pooled it
- Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Fear of COVID-19.Frontiers in psychology · 2021Pooled it
- Cyberchondria in the age of COVID-19.PloS one · 2020Trial
- The mediating and moderating role of COVID-19 coping attitudes in the relationship between coronavirus anxiety and cyberchondria.BMC psychology · 2026Article
- Rumination as a Mediator Between Intolerance of Uncertainty and Online Health Anxiety, Moderated by Medical History.Diseases (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Trends in the Implementation of the Cyberchondria Severity Scale: Bibliometric Analysis.JMIR mental health · 2026Article
- Impact of Cyberchondria on Health and Quality of Life: Scoping Review.Journal of medical Internet research · 2025Article
- The internet usage increases fear of infection with Covid-19.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- The Relationship between Cyberchondria and Health Anxiety and the Moderating Role of Health Literacy among the Pakistani Public.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2024Article
- Psychometric Properties of the Metacognitions About Online Gaming Scale in the Chinese Population and Its Relationship With Internet Gaming Disorder: Cross-Sectional Study.JMIR serious games · 2024Article
- The relationship between problematic internet use and psychological distress in older Chinese teachers (40+) during different stages of the COVID-19 pandemic: three cross-sectional studies.Frontiers in public health · 2024Article
- How Health Anxiety is Associated with Perceived Risk of Reinfection Among COVID-19 Infected People After the Epidemic Control Measures Lifted in China: A Multiple Mediating and Multi-Group Analysis.Psychology research and behavior management · 2024Article
- Anxiety and depression amongst youth as adverse effects of using social media : A Review.Annals of medicine and surgery (2012) · 2023Article
- Predictors of Cyberchondria During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Cross-sectional Study Using Supervised Machine Learning.JMIR formative research · 2023Article
- Article
- Health-Related Cognitions and Metacognitions Indirectly Contribute to the Relationships Between Impulsivity, Fear of COVID-19, and Cyberchondria.Journal of rational-emotive and cognitive-behavior therapy : RET · 2023Article
- Cyberchondria and COVID-19 anxiety and internet addiction among nursing students.Current psychology (New Brunswick, N.J.) · 2023Article
- Cyberchondria: a Growing Concern During the COVID-19 Pandemic and a Possible Addictive Disorder?Current addiction reports · 2023Review
Corrections and comments
- Erratum issued
Authors and funding
6 authors at 6 institutions in 5 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
With the rapid growth of the novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), individuals may try to find related medical information using the internet to overcome their fears. Under such circumstances, individuals with the features of cyberchondria, anxiety sensitivity, and metacognitive beliefs in negative thoughts may suffer more fears than those without these features. Therefore, the present study proposed a model to understand the associations between problematic internet use (PIU), cyberchondria, anxiety sensitivity, metacognition beliefs, and fear of COVID-19. Utilizing a cross-sectional online survey, 651 Iranians completed the following psychometric scales: Metacognition Questionnaire-30 (MCQ-30), Anxiety Sensitivity Questionnaire (ASI), Cyberchondria Severity Scale-Short Form (CSS-12), Fear of COVID-19 Scale (FCV-19S), and Generalized Problematic Internet Use Scale (GPIUS). Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to assess the proposed model via several fit indices. The indices include Tucker-Lewis index (TLI), comparative fit index (CFI), standardized root mean square residual (SRMR), and root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA). The fit indices (CFI = 0.948, TLI = 0.938, RMSEA = 0.053, and SRMR = 0.001) indicated the good fit between the data and the proposed model. Moreover, fear of COVID-19 was significantly and directly predicted by cyberchondria (β = 0.479,
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.