Health Anxiety and eHealth Literacy as Predictors of Cyberchondria in Women

Abstract

Purpose: This study aimed to investigate whether women's cyberchondria levels differ according to some socio-demographic demographic characteristics and the effect of health anxiety and e-health literacy on cyberchondria levels. Methods: The descriptive and cross-sectional study was conducted between December 2022 and March 2023 with women who applied to the gynecology outpatient clinic of a state hospital. The purposive sampling method was used, and 178 women were included in the study. The data were collected using a personal information form, Cyberchondria Severity Scale (CSS), Health Anxiety Inventory (HAI), and eHealth Literacy Scale (eHEALS). ANOVA, t-test, Pearson correlation, and hierarchical linear regression analysis analyzed the data. Results: In this study, the cyberchondria levels of the participants differed according to some socio-demographic characteristics (p< 0.05). The participants' mean score was 28.25 ± 8.45 on the CSS, 18.93 ± 10.78 on the HAI, and 25.65 ± 9.05 on the eHEALS. There was a positive and moderate relationship between the level of cyberchondria and health anxiety (r= 0.416; p=0.001) and e-health literacy (r= 0.378; p=0.001). Hierarchical regression analysis revealed that spending six hours or more on the Internet per day (β = 0.130), health anxiety (β = 0.319) and e-health literacy (β = 0.273) were predictors of cyberchondria (p< 0.05), and these variables explained 35% of the variance in cyberchondria (F=14.279; p=0.001). Conclusion: The study provides new findings in health-related Internet use research and contributes to the ongoing debate on the possible predictors of cyberchondria.