Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2023 May 24;18(5):e0285799.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0285799. eCollection 2023.

The level of health anxiety before and during the COVID-19 pandemic

Anja Davis Norbye  1 , Erlend Hoftun Farbu  1 , Christoffer Lilja Terjesen  1   2 , Nils Fleten  3 , Anje Christina Höper  1   4
Affiliations

The level of health anxiety before and during the COVID-19 pandemic

Anja Davis Norbye et al. PLoS One. .

Abstract

Background: Concerns about disease and an increase in health anxiety levels are expected consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, there have been few longitudinal studies of health anxiety in the general population during this time period. The aim of this study was to examine health anxiety levels before and during the COVID-19 pandemic in an adult, working population in Norway.

Material and methods: This study included 1012 participants aged 18-70 years with one or more measurements of health anxiety (1402 measurements total) from the pre-pandemic period (2015 to March 11, 2020) and/or during the COVID-19 pandemic (March 12, 2020 to March 31, 2022). Health anxiety was measured with the revised version of the Whiteley Index-6 scale (WI-6-R). We estimated the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on health anxiety scores with a general estimation equation analysis, and age, gender, education, and friendship were included in subgroup analyses.

Results: We found no significant change in health anxiety scores during the COVID-19 pandemic compared to the pre-pandemic period in our adult, working population. A sensitivity analysis restricted to participants with two or more measurements showed similar results. Moreover, the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on health anxiety scores was not significant in any subgroup analysis.

Conclusion: Health anxiety remained stable, with no significant change observed between the pre-pandemic period and the first 2 years of the COVID-19 pandemic in an adult, working population in Norway.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors have declared that no competing interests exists.

Figures

Fig 1
Fig 1. Boxplots showing the distribution of WI-6-R scores during six different time periods.
9 measurements from Q2 did not have an exact timepoint, and are therefore excluded from this figure (n = 1 393).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Rachman S. Health anxiety disorders: a cognitive construal. Behaviour research and therapy. 2012;50(7–8):502–12. Epub 20120510. doi: 10.1016/j.brat.2012.05.001 . - DOI - PubMed
    1. Ferguson E. A taxometric analysis of health anxiety. Psychol Med. 2009;39(2):277–85. Epub 20080519. doi: 10.1017/S0033291708003322 . - DOI - PubMed
    1. Bobevski I, Clarke DM, Meadows G. Health Anxiety and Its Relationship to Disability and Service Use: Findings From a Large Epidemiological Survey. Psychosom Med. 2016;78(1):13–25. Epub 2015/11/21. doi: 10.1097/PSY.0000000000000252 . - DOI - PubMed
    1. Eilenberg T, Frostholm L, Schroder A, Jensen JS, Fink P. Long-term consequences of severe health anxiety on sick leave in treated and untreated patients: Analysis alongside a randomised controlled trial. J Anxiety Disord. 2015;32:95–102. Epub 20150421. doi: 10.1016/j.janxdis.2015.04.001 . - DOI - PubMed
    1. Bleichhardt G, Hiller W. Hypochondriasis and health anxiety in the German population. Br J Health Psychol. 2007;12(Pt 4):511–23. Epub 2007/10/13. doi: 10.1348/135910706X146034 . - DOI - PubMed

Publication types