Cyberchondria, COVID-19 Fear, Health Anxiety, Obsessions, Sleep Quality and Affect: A Blended Structural Equation Modeling Approach

Within the scope of the project, the relationship between fear of COVID-19, cyberchondria, negative affect, health anxiety, obsessive-compulsive symptoms and sleep quality in individuals aged 18-65 across Turkey during the COVID-19 epidemic was examined with a mixed structural equation modeling approach and through latent profile analysis. It is aimed to define the latent subclasses formed by the participants. As a result of the project, according to the Pandemic Health Anxiety Model, which was validated, the level of perceived vulnerability to diseases was positively associated with cyberchondria severity, poor sleep quality, health anxiety, and obsessive-compulsive symptoms. Negative affect was positively associated with obsessive-compulsive symptoms, fear of COVID-19, cyberchondria severity, and poor sleep quality. In addition, it has been determined that fear of COVID-19 has a positive and significant relationship with health anxiety. In addition, cyberchondria severity is positively associated with poor sleep quality and obsessive-compulsive symptoms. As a result of latent profile analysis, six latent classes with homogeneous characteristics were identified based on the answers given by the participants. These groups are; It was named as 1) Risk-Avoiding Healthy Group, 2) Non-precautionary Healthy Group, 3) Infection Obsessions Group, 4) Health Anxiety Group, 5) Negative Affect Group, and 6) General Psychopathology Group. In the Pandemic Health Anxiety Model, it has been shown that perceived vulnerability to diseases, fear of COVID-19, cyberchondria severity, health anxiety, negative affect, obsessive-compulsive symptoms and sleep quality are psychological variables that play an important role in pandemic psychology. It is recommended that the target audiences of intervention programs and psycho-education programs to be developed on mental health problems experienced during the pandemic process are determined according to the subgroups obtained from the data, and their contents should be prepared in accordance with the psychological profile of each group. According to the findings, health anxiety, obsessive-compulsive symptoms and sleep problems, especially during the pandemic period, change in relation to the cognitive evaluations of individuals and their capacity to regulate their mood. In this sense, it is considered that cognitive-behavioral approaches can be used when designing intervention programs to improve and protect social mental health, especially during the pandemic period.