Attitudes Associated with Hypochondria and Abnormal Behavior Towards Illness in Health Science Students

• Published in: Psychiatric quarterly Vol. 91; no. 3; pp. 921 - 928
• Main Authors: Escamilla, Eduardo Ichikawa, Ortiz, Luis Alonso Elias, Pargas, Jesús Emanuel Aguiñaga, Martinez, Andrea Maciel, Botello, Beatriz Adriana Lozoya, Villa, Victor Daniel Boone, Villarreal, Joel Jiménez
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Springer US 01.09.2020; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Attitude measures; Health behavior; Health sciences; Health status; Hypochondria; Illnesses; Medicine; Medicine & Public Health; Original Paper; Polls & surveys; Psychiatry; Public Health; Sociology; Statistical analysis; Students; Test anxiety; Values; Attitudes; Science students; Hypochondria; Behavior
• DOI: 10.1007/s11126-020-09761-2
• ISSN: 0033-2720

The objective of this study was to evaluate attitudes towards the disease and its association with the presence of hypochondria in students of the health sciences area. The research was developed in 279 students in the health science area, with the application of Short Health Anxiety Inventory (SHAI) test and the Illness Attitude Scale (IAS) test was performed, and the descriptive, comparative and association statistical analyses were carried out. All students answered the previously mention surveys. Values above Cut-off ≥27 were obtained in the SHAI test was 6.8% ( n  = 19), and the percentage of students with values ≥50 Cut-off in the test of IAS was 15.7% ( n  = 44). IAS subtests involving an increase in the SHAI value are IAS for the disease (W), hypochondria beliefs (HB), body concerns (BP), treatment experiences (TE), and effect of symptoms (ES) with regression values of S = 3.9 with a square R adjusted to 64.9%. Therefore, according to the surveys used, a considerable sample of students showed abnormal behaviors towards the disease associated with the hypochondria, so it is important to continue monitoring students to reduce these factors.