Work

Developing a cyberchondria severity scale to promote self-care among university students during COVID-19

Year: 2024

Type: article

Abstract: Cyberchondria is a hybrid term signifying a state in which individuals compulsively search for health-related information online because of health distress or anxiety, further aggravating their worries. This study develops a Cyberchondria Severity Scale (CSS) to assess the current situation of university students. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was conducted using 145 valid questionnaires. Subsequently, a nationwide survey was conducted at various universities in Taiwan, and 802 questionnaires were used for confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). The EFA led to the development of a CSS for college students with four constructs: increased anxiety (α = 0.91), obsessive-compulsive hypochondria (α = 0.87), perceived controllability (α = 0.88), and online physician-patient interaction (α = 0.86), with a Cronbach’s alpha of 0.92 and variance of 66.81%. The CFA indicated that item reliability ranged from 0.50 to 0.86, factor loadings ranged from 0.71 to 0.93, and the composite reliability for latent variables ranged from 0.83 to 0.90 ( p < .001). The extracted average variance ranged from 0.46 to 0.60. There were significant differences in various dimensions: perceived controllability had the highest score and obsessive-compulsive hypochondria had the lowest (F 3,2403 =256.26, p < .001). Therefore, CSS has emerged as a reliable and valid measure. Future studies should explore the factors that influence cyberchondria, promote online health information searches, and enhance reading comprehension skills.

Source: Scientific Reports

DOI: 10.1038/s41598-024-74829-z

Author: Wan-Chen Hsu

Institution: National Kaohsiung University of Science and Technology

Language: English

Topic: COVID-19 and Mental Health

Subfield: Clinical Psychology

Field: Psychology

Domain: Social Sciences

SDG: Good health and well-being

Open Access status: gold

Estimated APC paid: $2,590