The COVID-19 pandemic is a public health threat of international concern, intensifying peoples’ psychological risk and vulnerability by strengthening mental health stressors such as fear, panic and uncertainty. The unexpected fear of COVID-19 has been reported to be associated with suicide occurrences, similar to prior pandemics.

Identifying the factors associated with fear of COVID-19 could help us to develop better mental health strategy and practice to improve the situation here in Bangladesh. This was the first attempt to present a Geographic Information System (GIS)-based distribution of fear of COVID-19 across the country's administrative districts in a nationwide sample.

Data for a total of 10 067 individuals were collected by an online survey during the first wave of the pandemic (1 to 10 April 2020); data for 10 052 participants were finally analysed after excluding 15 transgender individuals. The survey questionnaire included items concerning sociodemographic, behavioural and health-related variables, COVID-19-related issues, and the Bangla Fear of COVID-19 Scale.

The mean fear of COVID-19 scores was 21.30 ± 6.01 (out of a possible 35) in the present sample. Female gender, highly educated, non-smoker, non-alcohol consumer, having chronic diseases, using social media, and using social media and not using newspapers as COVID-19 information sources were associated with a higher level of fear of COVID-19. Higher levels of fear of COVID-19 were found in districts of Magura, Panchagarh, Tangail, Sunamganj and Munshiganj; by contrast, Kushtia, Pirojpur, Chapainawabganj, Jhalokathi and Naogaon districts had lower fear of COVID-19. Based on the GIS-distribution, fear of COVID-19 was significantly associated with the district as well as in respect to its gender-based and education-level-based associations. However, fear of COVID-19 and COVID-19 cases were heterogeneously distributed across the districts; that is, no consistent association of higher COVID-19 cases with higher fear of COVID-19 was found.

This study being exploratory in nature may help to facilitate further studies, as well as directing governmental initiatives for reducing fear of COVID-19 in at-risk individuals. Providing adequate resources and mental health services in the administrative regions identified as highly vulnerable to fear of COVID-19 is recommended.

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

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.

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.

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).

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.