AI Article Synopsis

  • Health anxiety (HA) during the COVID-19 pandemic can influence how individuals, particularly healthcare workers, engage in preventive behaviors against the virus.
  • The study found that feeling awful about potential illnesses led to decreased adherence to recommended preventive measures, while perceived likelihood of getting sick did not show the same effect.
  • Emphasizing the awfulness dimension of HA could improve self-protection strategies during health crises, benefiting both public health and healthcare workers' well-being.

Article Abstract

Objective: Health anxiety (HA), defined as excessive worry about having a serious medical condition, may affect preventive behaviors during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. We examined the distinct role of two dimensions of HA-perceived likelihood (probability dimension) and awfulness of illness (awfulness dimension)-in self-protection, as reflected in preventive behaviors during the pandemic.

Methods: Participants comprised 657 healthcare workers. Data were collected between February 24 and 26, 2021. The Short Health Anxiety Inventory determined the HA dimensions. Adherence to the government's recommendations for COVID-19 preventive behaviors was self-rated. An independent association between each HA dimension and participants' adherence to the recommendations was examined using multivariable regression.

Results: Within the analyzed sample of 560 subjects, severe HA was observed in 9.1 %. The more the participants felt awful, the less frequently they engaged in the recommended preventive behaviors (adjusted odds ratio = 0.993, 95 % confidence interval: 0.989, 0.998, p = 0.003) regardless of their profession, working position, psychological distress, sleep disturbance, and current physical diseases. However, the probability dimension was not associated with their preventive behaviors.

Conclusion: The awfulness dimension of HA could be a more sensitive marker of preventive behaviors than the probability dimension. Paying particular attention to the awfulness dimension may help optimize self-protection strategies during the COVID-19 pandemic. A two-dimensional understanding of HA may be useful for the maintenance of the healthcare system and public health as well as healthcare workers' own health.

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Source
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10685365PMC
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e22176DOI Listing

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