Health anxiety and cyberchondria level evaluation of high school achievement

The aim of this study; The aim of this study is to evaluate the health anxiety and cyberchondria levels of high school students. The universe of the research is Alibeyköy Anatolian High School students in Istanbul; The sample consisted of students (328), determined by stratification sampling method, who agreed to participate in the study and were at school that day. The data in the study were collected face to face with the questionnaire technique. Data collection tools of the research; The "Sociodemographic Information Form" prepared in the accompaniment of the literature, the "Health Anxiety Scale" created by Salkovskis et al. in 2002 and adapted into Turkish by Aydemir et al. in 2013, and the validity and reliability studies of the Turkish form developed by McElroy and Shevlin in 2014. (2016) "Cyberchondria Severity Scale". Descriptive statistics, Mann Whitney U, Kruskal Wallis test, Spearman Rho Correlation and linear regression analysis were used to calculate the data. Some of the features of the students; No significant difference was found between the characteristics such as age, mother's education level, father's education level, income status and health anxiety levels. A significant relationship was found between the students' gender, presence of chronic disease, and the time spent on the Internet, and health anxiety. A positive correlation was determined between the cyberchondria levels of high school students and their health anxiety levels. In the multiple regression analysis examining the effects of students' gender, frequency of internet searches and cyberchondria levels on health anxiety, it was determined that three variables affected health anxiety by 31%. Among the three variables, health anxiety ranks first; It was determined that gender affects -0.22, the frequency of doing research on the internet by 0.17 and cyberchondria by 0.42, respectively. In line with the findings, it was determined that some characteristics of high school students had a positive effect on their health anxiety levels. As a result, it was observed that there was a positive, weak or moderate relationship between students' health anxiety levels and cyberchondria levels, and that as their cyberchondria levels increased, their health anxiety levels increased. In the light of this information, it is thought that this study will provide a general view of the health anxiety and cyberchondria levels of young people, which sheds light on the future, while at the same time it will guide the strategies to be made to reduce the anxiety of young people. Key Words: Adolescent, Nursing, Health Anxiety, High School Students, Cyberchondria