How Health Anxiety Influences Responses to Viral Outbreaks like COVID-19: What All Decision-Makers, Health Authorities, and Health-Care Professionals Need to Know
TAGS: pandemics, journal of anxiety disorders ·Authored By: Asmundson, G. J. G. & Taylor, S.
Health anxiety occurs when someone interprets sensations or changes occurring in their body as a symptom of being ill. Health anxiety is experienced along a continuum ranging from low to high. People with high levels of health anxiety are generally convinced that they are ill and attempt to ease this fear using a variety of unhelpful actions like frequent visits to health-care providers, and persistent reassurance seeking from others. Low levels of health anxiety are associated with different problems, including failing to seek medical attention when it is needed. In contrast to low and high levels, moderate health anxiety is generally beneficial because individuals experiencing moderate health anxiety will pay reasonable attention to their health and seek appropriate medical care when needed.
The amount of health anxiety that a person experiences is closely linked to how effectively they will respond to a serious threat to their health, like the COVID-19 outbreak. While people with moderate health anxiety are likely to respond well and adhere to public health recommendations (e.g., handwashing, social distancing), people with low health anxiety may comply poorly and contribute to the spread of the virus. People with high health anxiety are likely to adhere to public health recommendations, but may also hamper the fair distribution of health-care services and resources through panic purchasing, stockpiling, and excessive medical consultation.
Moderate health anxiety can help efforts to manage a pandemic; however, health anxiety that is too low or too high can contribute to increased virus spread and unfair distribution of essential resources and protective supplies. Learning more about health anxiety, particularly as it relates to the COVID-19 outbreak, can help public health decision makers and providers better prepare and respond well to current and future pandemics.
Lay summary written by Julia Mason
Read Full Publication