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The effects of excessive and compulsive online searching of COVID-19 information (“cyberchondria”) on general and COVID-19-specific anxiety and fear in romantic couples during lockdown

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 August 2021

S. Stewart ,
F. King ,
L. Rodriguez ,
S. Meier ,
S. Sherry ,
A. Abbass ,
H. Deacon ,
R. Nogueira-Arjona  and
A. Hagen
S. Stewart
Affiliation:
Psychology And Neuroscience, And Psychiatry, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Canada
F. King*
Affiliation:
Psychology, McGill University, Montreal, Canada
L. Rodriguez
Affiliation:
Psychology, University of South Florida - St. Petersburg, St. Petersburg, United States of America
S. Meier
Affiliation:
Psychology And Neuroscience, And Psychiatry, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Canada
S. Sherry
Affiliation:
Psychology And Neuroscience, And Psychiatry, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Canada
A. Abbass
Affiliation:
Psychology And Neuroscience, And Psychiatry, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Canada
H. Deacon
Affiliation:
Psychology And Neuroscience, And Psychiatry, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Canada
R. Nogueira-Arjona
Affiliation:
Psychology And Neuroscience, And Psychiatry, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Canada
A. Hagen
Affiliation:
Psychology And Neuroscience, And Psychiatry, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Canada
*
*Corresponding author.

Abstract

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Introduction

Cyberchondria involves excessive and uncontrollable online searching of information about a perceived illness. This behavior can cause or maintain distress.

Objectives

Little is known about cyberchondria during the COVID-19 pandemic or how cyberchondria in one individual may cause distress in their significant other if they are self-isolating together; our study sought to fill these gaps.

Methods

We conducted a Qualtrics Panel survey with 760 cohabitating Canadian couples; in June 2020, participants retrospectively reported on their cyberchondria behavior, general anxiety, and COVID-19 fears during the month of April 2020, while adhering to stay-at-home advisories. Two separate actor-partner interdependence models (APIMs) used cyberchondria excessiveness and compulsion to predict generalized anxiety and COVID-19 danger/contamination fears in the actor and partner.

Results

Both cyberchondria excessiveness and compulsion were associated with higher general anxiety and higher COVID-19 danger/contamination fears in the individual (actor effects). Partner cyberchondria compulsion was associated with higher general anxiety in the individual whereas partner cyberchondria excessiveness was associated with higher COVID-19 danger/contamination fears in the individual (partner effects).

Conclusions

Findings suggest that excessive and uncontrollable searching of information about COVID-19 on the internet during lockdown may contribute to distress in both the individual engaging in the cyberchondria behavior, and in their romantic partner. Moreover, different aspects of cyberchondria in the partner (compulsion vs. excessiveness) appears to contribute to general vs. COVID-19-specific anxiety/fears in the partner, respectively. Future research should examine mechanisms underlying the observed partner effects (e.g., co-rumination, social contagion) and reasons for the differential partner effects of cyberchondria components.

Keywords

cyberchondriacovid-19 fearAnxietyromantic couples
Type
Abstract
Information
European Psychiatry , Volume 64 , Special Issue S1: Abstracts of the 29th European Congress of Psychiatry , April 2021 , pp. S295 - S296
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the European Psychiatric Association
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