Isolation and illness anxiety disorder during the COVID 19 pandemic – A descriptive study

Abstract

Background: Cognitive behavioral models of Illness Anxiety Disorder assume that normal bodily sensations are interpreted as signs of a serious illness. This increase in bodily sensation and its interpretation can be significantly influenced by several triggering factors. As these triggering factors, especially during the COVID 19 pandemic have not been studied yet, we conducted an online survey among the Indian population (N=532, 57.3% female, Mage= 26.97 years, SD = 12.72). Methodology: The survey consisted of two psychometric scales - the SHAI (to evaluate health anxiety levels) and LSNS (to evaluate Social Networking). The results were analysed using Spearman’s correlation coefficient and the SPSS tool. Results: We observed that health anxiety levels showed positive correlation with time spent reading COVID related news (r = 0.2063) and negative correlations with social networking score (r = -0.2524). Conclusion - These findings suggest that increased media consumption and social isolation serve as a risk factor to developing COVID associated Illness Anxiety Disorder.