The Effect of Cyberchondria on Health Anxiety and Healthy Life Awareness

Abstract

Today, health information is accessable quickly on the virtual environment with increasingly widespread use of Internet services and technological innovation. The fact that the Internet includes numerous and different information sources on every topic causes undesirable problems. In this research, it was aimed to investigate the effect of cyberchondria on health anxiety and healthy life awareness. The research was conducted with 426 people aged 18 and over living in Konya province in Turkey. In the research, a total of three scales were used: Cyberchondria, Health Anxiety and Healthy Life Awareness. The data were collected using convenience sampling method. Statistical package program (SPSS) was used for data analysis. The significance of cyberchondria, health anxiety and healthy lifes awareness was examined according to variables such as age, gender, marital status, educational status and place of residence. As a result of the analyses, no significant difference was found with age and marital status. In addition, a significant difference was found between cyberchondria, health anxiety and healthy lifes awareness and gender; between health anxiety and educational status; and between healthy life awareness and place of residence. A significant positive correlation was found between cyberchondria and health anxiety and healthy life awareness. It was also found that the cyberchondria levels of participants positively predicted health anxiety and healthy life awareness. The results obtained indicate the need to work towards increasing awareness of cyberchondria in society, considering the development of technological devices and the widespread use of the internet today.