ArticleHuman behavior and emerging technologies2021
Health anxiety related to problematic smartphone use and gaming disorder severity during COVID-19: Fear of missing out as a mediator.
Article in Human behavior and emerging technologies, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 50 papers.
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Who cites it
50 citing papers in PubMed, 105 citations in OpenAlex.
- Social exclusion and mobile phone dependence in college students: a moderated mediation model of self-control and social self-efficacy.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Article
- Psychometric properties of the smartphone distraction scale in arabic among lebanese young adults.Health psychology and behavioral medicine · 2026Article
- A longitudinal study on problematic smartphone use and Non-Suicidal Self-Injury: the mediating role of academic procrastination and anxiety.BMC psychology · 2025Article
- Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy-Game: An Ironic Way to Treat Internet Gaming Disorder.Journal of medical Internet research · 2025Article
- Social anxiety and smartphone addiction among college students: the mediating role of loneliness.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2025Article
- Association of children's electronic media use with physical activity, cognitive function, and stress.Preventive medicine · 2025Observational
- The Peking Health Anxiety Scale for Infectious Diseases: psychometric properties and short-form development.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2025Article
- Network analysis of interactions of rumination and anxiety on smartphone dependence symptoms.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2025Article
- Smartphone Addiction among Adolescents in Southern Italy and Correlation with Other Risky Behaviors.Actas espanolas de psiquiatria · 2024Observational
- Investigating the mechanisms of internet gaming disorder and developing intelligent monitoring models using artificial intelligence technologies: protocol of a prospective cohort.BMC public health · 2024Article
- Gender Differences in the Longitudinal Linkages between Fear of COVID-19 and Internet Game Addiction: A Moderated Multiple Mediation Model.Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- Lifestyle Habits Related to Internet Use in Adolescents: Relationships between Wellness, Happiness, and Mental Health.Children (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- The impact of long-term online learning on social anxiety and problematic smartphone use symptoms among secondary school students with different levels of fear of missing out: Evidence from a symptom network and longitudinal panel network analysis.Journal of behavioral addictions · 2024Article
- Covid-19 psychological pressures, depression and FOMO: the mediating role of online social support and emotional regulation.BMC psychology · 2024Article
- Network Analysis of Internet Addiction, Online Social Anxiety, Fear of Missing Out, and Interpersonal Sensitivity among Chinese University Students.Depression and anxiety · 2024Article
- Screen Time and Child Behavioral Disorders During COVID-19 Pandemic: A Systematic Review.International journal of preventive medicine · 2024Review
- Problematic Gaming during COVID-19 Pandemic: A Systematic Review, Meta-Analysis, and Meta-Regression.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Review
- Social networking and fear of missing out (FOMO) among medical students at University of Khartoum, Sudan 2021.BMC psychology · 2023Article
- PTSD, FOMO and fake news beliefs: a cross-sectional study of Wenchuan earthquake survivors.BMC public health · 2023Article
- Understanding Problematic Gaming During the Covid-19 Pandemic in Adolescents and Adults: A Systematic Review of the Literature.Clinical neuropsychiatry · 2023Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
6 authors at 4 institutions in 4 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Health anxiety has been linked with fear and anxiety regarding COVID-19. Higher levels of health anxiety likely increased social distancing and self-isolating during the pandemic. We investigated relations among health anxiety, fear of missing out (FOMO) on rewarding social experiences from social distancing, and consequential levels of problematic smartphone use (PSU) and gaming disorder (GD). We surveyed a broad sample of 812 U.S. and Canadian participants during the pandemic, in late-May 2020, using the Short Health Anxiety Inventory, FOMO Scale, Smartphone Addiction Scale-Short Version, and GD test. Significant bivariate relationships were found among health anxiety, FOMO, PSU, and GD severity. Using structural equation modeling, FOMO mediated relations between health anxiety and both PSU and GD severity. We discuss FOMO as an important variable explaining problematic digital technology use to compensate for unmet social needs from social distancing. We discuss these findings within the context of the Interaction of Person-Affect-Cognition-Execution theoretical model of problematic internet use. Results offer novel insight into the role of health anxiety on FOMO from unmet social needs during the COVID-19 pandemic, and consequential problematic internet use.
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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.