An Examination of the Effects of Health-related Internet Use in Individuals With Pathological Health Anxiety Using Ambulatory Assessment

NCT ID: NCT03019705

Last Updated: 2017-01-13

Basic Information

• Recruitment Status: UNKNOWN
• Total Enrollment: 40 participants
• Study Classification: OBSERVATIONAL

Brief Summary

The purpose of the current explorative study is to examine the effects of health-related internet use in individuals with pathological health anxiety using ambulatory assessment. In a naturalistic setting participants answer over a seven-day period questionnaires about their health-related internet use and its effects on affect, health anxiety and symptom severity in their usual daily lives.

Detailed Description

The internet is a popular method for obtaining information. Increasingly, it is also used to answer medical and health questions, because compared to other methods (e.g. going to the library or visiting a doctor) it has a number of advantages to offer like low costs, availability, easy accessibility, anonymity, and great diversity of information types and sources. 60 to 80 percent of internet users search online for medical information. In this context the term "cyberchondria" was coined in the media to describe the potentially detrimental effects of this behavior. The first studies in this field using self-report retrospective data showed that individuals with elevated levels of health anxiety seem to make increased use of the internet for this purpose and it seems to maintain health anxiety in the long-term. However, up until today little is known about the consequences of this behavior and the maintaining mechanism.

This observational study aims to investigate the effects of health-related internet use in individuals with pathological health anxiety in a naturalistic setting using ambulatory assessment. The variables of interest are monitored using time- and event-based sampling methods. Therefore, over a seven-day period participants answer seven times a day questionnaires on a mobile phone in their usual daily lives and additionally track the variables of interest in the moment the target behavior (health-related internet use) occurs. To our knowledge, this is the first study to investigate these relations using ambulatory assessment and therefore additionally aims to investigate the feasibility of this study design in this specific field of research.

Conditions

Health Anxiety

Study Design

• Observational Model Type: CASE_ONLY
• Study Time Perspective: PROSPECTIVE

Study Groups

Participants

Individuals with pathological health anxiety

Observation

Intervention Type: OTHER

Interventions

Observation

Intervention Type: OTHER

Eligibility Criteria

Inclusion Criteria

• Pathological health anxiety according to the criteria of Fink et al., 2004
• Informed consent
• Sufficient German language skills
• Sufficient skills using a computer, a mobile phone and the internet

Exclusion Criteria

• Suicidal tendency
• Clinical diagnosis of alcohol or drug abuse, acute schizophrenia
• Organic brain disorders
• Impairment of intelligence

• Minimum Eligible Age: 18 Years
• Eligible Sex: ALL
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No

Sponsors

University of Cologne

OTHER

Sponsor Role: collaborator

Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz

OTHER

Sponsor Role: lead

Responsible Party

Sandra K. Hamann

Principal Investigator

Responsibility Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

Principal Investigators

Michael Witthoeft, Professor

Role: STUDY_CHAIR

Department of Clinical Psychology, Psychotherapy and Experimental Psychopathology, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz

Central Contacts

Sandra K Hamann, Dipl.-Psych.

Role: CONTACT

sahamann@uni-mainz.de

(+49) 6131 - 3939 214

Other Identifiers

C2-aA

Identifier Type: -

Identifier Source: org_study_id