Health Anxiety and Its Correlations with Self-Perceived Risk and Attitude on COVID-19 among Malaysian Healthcare Workers during the Pandemic.

Hajar Mohd Salleh Sahimi,Nik Ruzyanei Nik Jaafar,Nazirah Azman,Ahmad Khaldun Ismail,Tuti Iryani Mohd Daud,Akramul Zikri Abdul Malek,Azlin Baharudin,Mohd Rohaizat Hassan,Azmawati Mohammed Nawi

doi:10.3390/ijerph18094879

Abstract

Healthcare workers (HCW) are exposed to health-related anxiety in times of pandemic as they are considered to have a high risk of being infected whilst being the vital workforce to manage the outbreak. This study determined the factors that influence health anxiety and its extent in correlations with perceived risk, knowledge, attitude, and practice of HCW. A cross-sectional online survey was conducted on a total of 709 HCW from both public and private healthcare facilities who completed a set of questionnaires on sociodemographic data, knowledge, attitude, and practice of HCW on COVID-19, and health anxiety traits assessed using the short version Health Anxiety Inventory (HAI). Multiple linear regression (adjusted R2 = 0.06) revealed respondents with higher perceived risk for COVID-19 significantly predicted higher HAI scores (beta 1.281, p < 0.001, 95%, CI: 0.64, 1.92), and those with a higher cautious attitude towards COVID-19 significantly predicted higher HAI scores (beta 0.686, p < 0.001, 95%CI: 0.35, 1.02). Healthcare workers’ perceived risk and cautious attitude towards COVID-19 might be potentially influenced by management of the sources and approaches to the dissemination of information of the pandemic. The implementation of certain measures that minimize the infection risk and its related anxiety is important to preserve both their physical and psychological wellbeing.

Highlights

The COVID-19 pandemic is said to be the impetus of a sequelae of mental health issues [1]
This study investigates the correlations between health anxiety traits and knowledge, attitude, and practice of Malaysian healthcare workers (HCW) during the initial phases of the first Movement Control Order (MCO) in Malaysia, i.e., between 18 March and 28
Data was collected from Healthcare workers (HCW) in Malaysian healthcare setting who completed the survey

Summary

Introduction

The COVID-19 pandemic is said to be the impetus of a sequelae of mental health issues [1]. While any flu-like symptom increases psychological distress, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on mental health was anticipated to be more serious. Anxiety and depression are said to be the leading manifestation [2], with a high probability of increased new-onset health-related anxiety [3]. Health anxiety is defined as worries and anxiety due to perceived threat to one’s health. This is conceptualized as a dimensional construct on a continuum that ranged from the absence of health awareness to disordered health anxiety such as illness anxiety disorder [4,5,6]. There were reports on the emergence of “psychogenic COVID-19” described as a conversion

Methods

Results

Conclusion