Social Support and Health Anxiety during COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

Social support is regarded as a mediator to alleviate health anxiety in general. However, during the COVID-19 pandemic, anxiety was widespread, and the role of social support in the increasing health anxiety for the general population has not yet been studied. This study sought to identify the effect of social support on health anxiety in adult students during the pandemic. This online survey assessed 93 participants from May 1st to June 12th, 2020, which including questionnaires on health anxiety, sleep quality, fear of COVID-19, perceived and multi-dimensional social support. A repeated-measures ANOVA revealed a significant increase in health anxiety, safety behaviors (i.e., seeking avoidance and reassurance) and sleep problems for respondents during the pandemic. Through correlation and mediation analysis, the results has shown that, in the context of the pandemic, the relationship between social support and health anxiety was significant and negative, but safety behaviors and sleep quality were not significantly associated with social support quality. Also, social support still acted as a mediator to buffer the effect of fear of the virus on health anxiety. These findings suggested that during the COVID-19 pandemic, although participants` health anxiety increased significantly, social support still played a role of mediator between fear of virus and health anxiety.