Distribution of health anxiety in a general adult population and associations with demographic and social network characteristics
BACKGROUND: Health anxiety (HA) is associated with increased risk of disability, increased health care utilization and reduced quality of life. However, there is no consensus on which factors are important for the level of HA. The aim of this study was to explore the distribution of HA in a general...
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ftpubmed:oai:pubmedcentral.nih.gov:9527669 2023-05-15T18:34:45+02:00 Distribution of health anxiety in a general adult population and associations with demographic and social network characteristics Norbye, Anja Davis Abelsen, Birgit Førde, Olav Helge Ringberg, Unni 2022-09 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9527669/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33183380 https://doi.org/10.1017/S0033291720004122 en eng Cambridge University Press http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9527669/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33183380 http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0033291720004122 © The Author(s) 2020 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. CC-BY Psychol Med Original Article Text 2022 ftpubmed https://doi.org/10.1017/S0033291720004122 2022-10-23T00:32:23Z BACKGROUND: Health anxiety (HA) is associated with increased risk of disability, increased health care utilization and reduced quality of life. However, there is no consensus on which factors are important for the level of HA. The aim of this study was to explore the distribution of HA in a general adult population and to investigate whether demographic and social factors were associated with HA. METHODS: This study used cross-sectional data from the seventh Tromsø study. A total of 18 064 participants aged 40 years or older were included in the analysis. The six-item Whiteley Index (WI-6) with a 5-point Likert scale was used to measure HA. Sociodemographic factors included age, sex, education, household income, quality of friendship and participation in an organized activity. RESULTS: HA showed an exponential distribution among the participants with a median score of 2 points out of 24 points. In total, 75% had a total score of 5 points or less, whereas 1% had a score >14 points. Education, household income, quality of friendship and participation in organized activity were significantly associated with HA. The variable quality of friendship demonstrated the strongest association with HA. CONCLUSION: Our study showed an exponential distribution of HA in a general adult population. There was no evident cut-off point to distinguish participants with severe HA based on their WI-6 score, indicating the importance of analysing HA as a complex, continuous construct. HA demonstrated strong associations with quality of friendship and participation in an organized activity. Text Tromsø PubMed Central (PMC) Tromsø Psychological Medicine 52 12 2255 2262 |
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Original Article Norbye, Anja Davis Abelsen, Birgit Førde, Olav Helge Ringberg, Unni Distribution of health anxiety in a general adult population and associations with demographic and social network characteristics |
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Original Article |
description |
BACKGROUND: Health anxiety (HA) is associated with increased risk of disability, increased health care utilization and reduced quality of life. However, there is no consensus on which factors are important for the level of HA. The aim of this study was to explore the distribution of HA in a general adult population and to investigate whether demographic and social factors were associated with HA. METHODS: This study used cross-sectional data from the seventh Tromsø study. A total of 18 064 participants aged 40 years or older were included in the analysis. The six-item Whiteley Index (WI-6) with a 5-point Likert scale was used to measure HA. Sociodemographic factors included age, sex, education, household income, quality of friendship and participation in an organized activity. RESULTS: HA showed an exponential distribution among the participants with a median score of 2 points out of 24 points. In total, 75% had a total score of 5 points or less, whereas 1% had a score >14 points. Education, household income, quality of friendship and participation in organized activity were significantly associated with HA. The variable quality of friendship demonstrated the strongest association with HA. CONCLUSION: Our study showed an exponential distribution of HA in a general adult population. There was no evident cut-off point to distinguish participants with severe HA based on their WI-6 score, indicating the importance of analysing HA as a complex, continuous construct. HA demonstrated strong associations with quality of friendship and participation in an organized activity. |
format |
Text |
author |
Norbye, Anja Davis Abelsen, Birgit Førde, Olav Helge Ringberg, Unni |
author_facet |
Norbye, Anja Davis Abelsen, Birgit Førde, Olav Helge Ringberg, Unni |
author_sort |
Norbye, Anja Davis |
title |
Distribution of health anxiety in a general adult population and associations with demographic and social network characteristics |
title_short |
Distribution of health anxiety in a general adult population and associations with demographic and social network characteristics |
title_full |
Distribution of health anxiety in a general adult population and associations with demographic and social network characteristics |
title_fullStr |
Distribution of health anxiety in a general adult population and associations with demographic and social network characteristics |
title_full_unstemmed |
Distribution of health anxiety in a general adult population and associations with demographic and social network characteristics |
title_sort |
distribution of health anxiety in a general adult population and associations with demographic and social network characteristics |
publisher |
Cambridge University Press |
publishDate |
2022 |
url |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9527669/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33183380 https://doi.org/10.1017/S0033291720004122 |
geographic |
Tromsø |
geographic_facet |
Tromsø |
genre |
Tromsø |
genre_facet |
Tromsø |
op_source |
Psychol Med |
op_relation |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9527669/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33183380 http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0033291720004122 |
op_rights |
© The Author(s) 2020 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
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CC-BY |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1017/S0033291720004122 |
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Psychological Medicine |
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52 |
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12 |
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2255 |
op_container_end_page |
2262 |
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