ArticlePerspectives in psychiatric care2022
The effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on health anxiety and cyberchondria levels of university students.
Article in Perspectives in psychiatric care, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 19 papers.
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Who cites it
19 citing papers in PubMed.
- Cyberchondria-Related Behaviors Among Undergraduate Female Healthcare Students: A Descriptive and Exploratory Study of CSS-12 Dimensions and Demographic Characteristics.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- A descriptive analysis of multi-jurisdictional enteric illness messaging web analytics data, 2020-2022.Canada communicable disease report = Releve des maladies transmissibles au Canada · 2026Article
- The Impact of Online Health Anxiety on Maternal Health Behaviors in Cyberchondriac Mothers: A Narrative Review.Cureus · 2026Review
- Trends in the Implementation of the Cyberchondria Severity Scale: Bibliometric Analysis.JMIR mental health · 2026Article
- Cyberchondria and Health Anxiety in Patients Visiting Hematology Outpatient Clinic: Reflection of Digitalisation.Journal of clinical medicine · 2025Article
- The Relationship Between E-Health Literacy, Health Anxiety, Cyberchondria, and Death Anxiety in University Students That Study in Health Related Department.Journal of multidisciplinary healthcare · 2025Article
- Tailored internet-based psychological treatment for psychological problems during the COVID-19 pandemic: A randomized controlled trial.Internet interventions · 2023Article
- Health anxiety, death anxiety and coronaphobia: Predictors of postpartum depression symptomatology during the COVID-19 pandemic.Midwifery · 2023Article
- Article
- How Do COVID-19 Risk, Life-Safety Risk, Job Insecurity, and Work-Family Conflict Affect Miner Performance? Health-Anxiety and Job-Anxiety Perspectives.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2023Article
- Dietary Supplementation Practices Among Undergraduate Students in Greece During the COVID-19 Pandemic and Their Association with COVID-19-related Anxiety.Materia socio-medica · 2023Article
- Cyberchondria: a Growing Concern During the COVID-19 Pandemic and a Possible Addictive Disorder?Current addiction reports · 2023Review
- Cyberchondria and COVID-19 anxiety and internet addiction among nursing students.Current psychology (New Brunswick, N.J.) · 2023Article
- Internet Derived Information Obstruction Treatment (IDIOT) Syndrome: A Breviloquent Review.Cureus · 2022Review
- New challenges in facing cyberchondria during the coronavirus disease pandemic.Current opinion in behavioral sciences · 2022Review
- The effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on health anxiety and cyberchondria levels of university students.Perspectives in psychiatric care · 2022Article
- The Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on Searching for Health-Related Information and Cyberchondria on the General Population in Italy.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2021Article
- The Influence of COVID-19 Stress and Self-Concealment on Professional Help-Seeking Attitudes: A Cross-Sectional Study of University Students.Psychology research and behavior management · 2021Article
- Cyberchondria and its Association with Smartphone Addiction and Electronic Health Literacy among a Saudi Population.Saudi journal of medicine & medical sciencesArticle
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectiveOur study hypothesizes that the fear and panic of COVID-19 triggers cyberchondria (CYB) in students thus increasing health anxiety. In this way, we aim to determine the effect of the belief of previously having had and not having had COVID-19 on health anxiety and CYB levels of the university students.
methodsOur study is a descriptive cross-sectional study. The target population of our study consisted of 950 students who were continuing their education in the Vocational School of Health Services, an associate degree program of a university, and the samples consisted of 794 students (85.5%) who filled out our questionnaire (n = 794). The questionnaire form included the information regarding sociodemographic characteristics and the symptoms of COVID-19, and the obtained data were electronically collected altogether with Cyberchondria Scale (CS) and Health Anxiety Inventory.
findingsHealth anxiety mean scores were significantly higher in people who lived alone, had a chronic disease, searched for symptoms online, and took herbal supplements against COVID-19 (p < 0.05). The mean total scores of Health Anxiety Inventory, CS, Anxiety-Increasing Factors Subscale of the students who believe they have had COVID-19 were significantly lower compared to the scores of those who believe they have not had COVID-19. Nevertheless, women and people living alone and in cities had significantly high CS scores (p < 0.05).
conclusionThe increase in infodemia can be prevented with the services offered by specialists through mental health helpline or websites to people with high health anxiety or CYB levels, especially to women, and to people living alone and in urban areas.
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