The relationship between cyberchondria level and health anxiety of relatives of patients receiving home health services in Erzincan province

Purpose: The aim of our study was to determine the level of cyberchondria in the relatives of patients receiving home health services and to determine the relationship between it and health anxiety. The aim of our study is to determine this relationship and to shed light on future innovations and studies in terms of the delivery and management of health services by identifying the factors that affect cyberchondria and health anxiety and identifying those that may change between them. Materials and Methods: Our study was cross-sectional and descriptive. The universe of the study consists of the relatives of the patients who were examined and visited at home between 15.05.2023 and 15.07.2023 among the patients registered in the Home Health Services Unit of Erzincan Mengücek Gazi Training and Research Hospital. Volunteers between the ages of 18-65 who are primarily responsible for the care of a home health patient, whose cognitive level is capable of answering questions, who are internet users, and who are not health workers or retirees were included in the study. A questionnaire form consisting of 19 questions prepared by scanning the literature, the 'Cyberchondria Severity Scale', whose validity reliability was made in Turkish by Söyler et al. in 2021, and the Health Anxiety Inventory, which was studied in Turkish reliability and validity by Aydemir et al. in 2013, were applied to the participants. This study was carried out by face-to-face interviews with the relatives of the patients who volunteered. Before data collection, participants were informed about the study and their verbal and written consents were obtained. The sample size of our study was calculated as 235 people and a total of 240 participants were included in the study. At every stage of the work, the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki were followed. xii Results: 64.2% of the participants were female (n=154) and 35.8% were male (n=86). Of the participants, 77.9% were married (n=187), 41.7% were housewives (n=100), and 1.7% (n=4) were illiterate. 57.1% of the participants who undertook the duty of care were from the daughter-son group of the patient (n=137). Of the participants, 37.1% had a chronic disease (n=89) and 7.9% (n=19) were using a psychiatric drug. The average time allocated by the participants during the day was 2.03±1.63 hours, the average time spent on the internet on a daily basis was 1.5±1.42 hours, and the average time allocated to health research on the internet on a daily basis was 0.48±0.68 hours. The average number of days in a week was 6.01±1.59. The mean daily time allocated to the patient receiving care was 8.48±4.93 hours, and the mean time taken care of the patients was 60.40±60.55 months. When the participants were asked to rate the difficulty of care of their patients as the lowest 1 point and the highest 10 points, the mean difficulty of care score was 7.85±2.09. When the status of the participants receiving caregiver support was examined, it was determined that 20% of them did not receive any support at all. Conclusıons: The mean total score of the participants from the Cyberchondria Severity Scale was found to be 22.36±11.63. The mean score of the participants from the Health Anxiety Scale was found to be 17.69±11.54. It was observed that the cyberchondria level of the participants in the young and middle age group, women, singles, and those who had university and higher education level among the patients they cared for was higher than the others. It was observed that the level of cyberchondria was higher than the others, who spent more time on the internet on a daily basis, and who spent more time on the internet on a daily basis. It was observed that the level of health anxiety was higher among the participants, those who were in the older age group, those who had a higher degree of care for their patients, and those who spent more time on health research on the internet on a daily basis. It was observed that there was a positive, significant and weak relationship between the cyberchondria levels and health anxiety levels of the participants.