Individual and psychosocial aspects related to cyberchondria

• Grant number: 24/13047-0
• Support Opportunities: Regular Research Grants
• Start date: March 01, 2025
• End date: February 29, 2028
• Field of knowledge: Health Sciences - Collective Health
• Principal Investigator: Juliana Alvares Duarte Bonini Campos
• Grantee: Juliana Alvares Duarte Bonini Campos
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Ciências Farmacêuticas (FCFAR). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Araraquara. Araraquara , SP, Brazil
• City of the host institution: Araraquara
• Associated researchers: Ana Filipa Fernandes Pimenta ; Bianca Gonzalez Martins ; Carlos Cesar Crestani ; Guilherme Fleury Fina Speretta ; João Maroco ; Lucas Arrais de Campos
• Associated scholarship(s): 25/04133-2 - Individual and psychosocial aspects related to cyberchondria, BP.TT

Abstract

Objectives: Study 1. i) identify individual and psychosocial aspects related to health anxiety symptoms and cyberchondria in adult Brazilian; Study 2. ii) identify self-reported emotions elicited by images related to health situations presented to participants allocated to subgroups delimited based on the presence or absence of health-related anxiety and with low or high cyberchondria scores; iii) investigate the cardiovascular responses of participants from different subgroups during the presentation of the images related to health situations. Study 3. iv. identify and compare the symptoms of health-related anxiety and cyberchondria in adults from different countries; v. estimate the cross-national invariance of the Short Health Anxiety Inventory (SHAI) and the Cyberchondria Severity Scale (CSS). To estimate the contribution of health-related anxiety to cyberchondria among participants from different countries. Methods: Three studies will be carried out, two observational and one experimental. Undergraduate student and adult individuals will be invited to participate. The Short Health Anxiety Inventory (SHAI), BriefCOPE Inventory, Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (MSPSS), Big Five Inventory and Cyberchondria Severity Scale (CSS) scales will be used. Quali and quantitative techniques will be used to analyze the data. Structural equation models will be developed for Brazilian and transnational data (Brazil, Portugal, United States, Egypt, Croatia, Iran, Finland). In the experimental study, visual stimuli will be used to evaluate self-reported emotions elicited by participants with low-low or high-high scores for anxiety and cyberchondria. Facial expressions will be assessed using the FaceReader program and self-reported emotions will be assessed using the circumplex model. (AU)