Investigation of the relationship between depression, cyberchondria levels and the quality of life of female students during the COVID-19 pandemic

ABSTRACT

This study aimed to explore the correlation between cyberchondria levels, depression risk, and the quality of life among female students amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. The research was conducted with 534 female students enrolled in a public university. Participants were asked to complete a Personal Information Form, Cyberchondria Severity Scale (CSS), Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), and “Short Form-36 (SF-36)” questionnaire. The findings from the multiple linear regression analysis revealed that the level of cyberchondria increased the depression risk by 0.06 times among students. Additionally, nonsmokers were found to have a depression risk that was 4.06 times lower than smokers. A negative and weak correlation was observed between the total score of the CSS and the SF-36 survey. Based on the study’s results, it can be concluded that the participants exhibited a moderate level of cyberchondria. Moreover, the study revealed a decreased quality of life and an increased risk of depression in participants as their level of cyberchondria increased. In order to mitigate the adverse impact of current and future health crises, it is imperative to prioritize organizing educational programs aimed at enhancing the e-health literacy level among female students, along with interventions to manage cyberchondria behaviors.

KEYWORDS:

• Covid-19
• cyberchondria
• depression
• female students
• quality of life

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Compliance with ethical standards

The manuscript is original and the text is not under consideration by any other journal.

The article has been approved by all authors.

The authors have agreed to grant their copyrights to the journal

Ethical approvel

(Decree code:46418926–050.01.04) was obtained for this research work from the ethics committee of the University of Health Sciences, Hamidiye Scientific Research Ethics Committee

Credit authorship contribution statement

Yasemin Aydın Kartal: Conceptualization (Lead), Formal analysis (Lead), Methodology (Lead), Project administration (Lead), Writing – original draft (Lead)

Leyla Kaya: Conceptualization (Supporting), Data curation (Lead), Methodology (Supporting), Writing – original draft (Supporting)

Handan Özcan: Methodology (Supporting), Writing – original draft (Supporting), Writing – review & editing (Supporting)

Additional information

Funding

This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.