A Study on the Relationship of Cyberchondria, Health Anxiety, and Coping Strategies among Adults

Abstract

Young adults face many problems related to mental health. One of them is cyberchondria, which refers to the repeated searching regarding health issues and illness on the internet, sometimes leading to self-diagnosis, which leads to health anxiety and stress. The present study aimed to investigate the relationship of cyberchondria, health anxiety, and coping strategies among young adults. For this purpose, a sample of 51 individuals in the age range of 18-30 years was taken. Standardized measures of Cyberchondria, Health Anxiety, and Coping were administered to the participants. The study found a significant positive correlation between cyberchondria and health Anxiety, meaning that if the self-diagnosis behavior and repeated health-related searches increase, health anxiety also increases, and there is a significant negative correlation between health anxiety and coping, suggesting that higher health anxiety is deeply associated with poor coping abilities, and a person who is catastrophizing about illness shows difficulty in using coping strategies. These findings implicated the need to reduce the excessive use of phones and searching for every health- related information on the internet, and to avoid self-diagnosis of their health, because it gives unnecessary stress and health-anxiety to you.