Nadeem Faiza, Malik Najma Iqbal, Atta Mohsin, Ullah Irfan, Martinotti Giovanni, Pettorruso Mauro, Vellante Federica, Di Giannantonio Massimo, De Berardis Domenico
Department of Psychology, University of Sargodha, Sargodha 40100, Pakistan.
Kabir Medical College, Gandhara University, Peshawar 25000, Pakistan.
J Clin Med. 2022 May 5;11(9):2590. doi: 10.3390/jcm11092590.
The current study was designed to examine the relationship between health anxiety, cyberchondria (its constructs), and metacognitive beliefs. In addition, it also evaluated the moderating role of metacognitive beliefs in this relationship.
The present study used the purposive sampling technique to acquire a sample of ( = 500) adults, among them ( = 256) women and ( = 244) men, and the age of the sample ranged from 20 to 50 years. Short Health Anxiety Inventory, Cyberchondria Severity Scale, and Metacognitions Questionnaire-Health Anxiety were used to operationalize the present study variables.
The descriptive statistics revealed that all instruments have good psychometric properties, as Cronbach's alpha coefficients for all scales are ≥0.70. In addition to this, the Pearson correlation showed that all variables of the present study have a significant positive correlation with each other. Furthermore, the regression analysis described that health anxiety and metacognitive beliefs (biased thinking and beliefs about uncontrollable thoughts) were the significant positive predictors of cyberchondria. Moreover, moderation analysis showed that metacognitive beliefs significantly strengthened the association between health anxiety and cyberchondria and its constructs.
The present study will help medical practitioners to understand how metacognitive beliefs and health anxiety can cause an increase in cyberchondria. This will help them to design better treatment plans for people with cyberchondria.
本研究旨在探讨健康焦虑、网络疑病症（及其构成要素）与元认知信念之间的关系。此外，还评估了元认知信念在这种关系中的调节作用。
本研究采用立意抽样技术，选取了500名成年人作为样本，其中女性256名，男性244名，样本年龄在20至50岁之间。使用简短健康焦虑量表、网络疑病症严重程度量表和健康焦虑元认知问卷对本研究变量进行操作化。
描述性统计显示，所有量表均具有良好的心理测量学特性，因为所有量表的克朗巴哈α系数均≥0.70。除此之外，皮尔逊相关性分析表明，本研究的所有变量之间均存在显著的正相关关系。此外，回归分析表明，健康焦虑和元认知信念（有偏差的思维以及对无法控制的想法的信念）是网络疑病症的显著正向预测因子。此外，调节分析表明，元认知信念显著增强了健康焦虑与网络疑病症及其构成要素之间的关联。
本研究将有助于医学从业者理解元认知信念和健康焦虑如何导致网络疑病症的增加。这将帮助他们为网络疑病症患者设计更好的治疗方案。
