Moderator role of emotion regulation on the effect of cyberchondria level on health anxiety level

The increase in internet use around the world brings along many psychological problems. Cyberchondria, which is defined as excessive and repetitive online health information seeking behavior with increasing anxiety and worry, is one of these problems. Cyberchondria has the potential to increase low-level health anxiety in individuals, as well as many physical and psychological effects. When the relevant literature is examined, it is seen that the studies on how cyberchondria trigger health anxiety or increase the low level of health anxiety are quite limited. In the current study, the moderator role of emotion regulation in the effect of the level of cyberchondria on the level of health anxiety was examined. The sample of the study consists of individuals aged 18 and over who use the internet or have access to the internet, can answer questionnaires online, can read and write and can speak Turkish. Health Anxiety Scale-Short Form, Emotion Regulation Questionnaire, Cyberchondria Severity Scale and Socio-demographic Information Form including personal information were applied to the participants. The results of the correlation analysis of the study showed that the level of cyberchondria did not have any significant relationship with the cognitive reappraisal and suppression sub-dimensions of emotion regulation. While there was no significant relationship between the level of health anxiety and the suppression sub-dimension, a negative and significant relationship was found between the level of health anxiety and cognitive reappraisal. According to the simple linear regression analysis, it was determined that the level of cyberchondria predicted 18.6% of the level of health anxiety. The results obtained from the multiple regression analysis showed that the cognitive reappraisal and suppression sub-dimensions of emotion regulation did not have a significant moderator effect on the relationship between the level of cyberchondria and the level of health anxiety.