Health Anxiety Among the Normal Population and Healthcare Professionals in a Highly Disadvantaged Region During Three Waves of COVID-19

Abstract

Abstract Health anxiety manifests in fearing for our health when we recognize factors endangering it. The COVID-19 pandemic has occurred as such a factor in which millions of people have become infected and lost their relatives. The pandemic initiated by an unknown pathogen has occurred as an obviously health-influencing and -threatening phenomenon. The presence of health anxiety related to COVID-19 is considered to be an adaptive reaction, since it strengthens health behaviour (following epidemiological rules, health-protecting behaviour), but its long-lasting, increased level has created problems by influencing more fields of human life in a negative way and inhibiting people seriously in their everyday activities. Our research goal is the assessment of health anxiety among the population of a highly disadvantaged region in North-east Hungary during three waves of the pandemic. We will deal with the health anxiety of healthcare professionals working in this region separately, and we will examine how much the anxiety of people working with seriously ill patients differs from the normal population’s anxiety. This study presents the partial results of the complex mental health image research of the region’s adult population. In this unit of the research, we used the shortened version of the WHO Well-being questionnaire and the Short Health Anxiety Inventory. In the online data recording, 550 persons completed the questionnaire on average. It is not representative, but it reflects the attitude of the region’s population well.