Is There a Relationship Between Online Health Information Seeking and Health Anxiety? A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

ABSTRACT

The internet has revolutionized how we live, providing unprecedented convenience and up-to-date information. Consequently, an increasing number of individuals are turning to the internet for health-related information, despite research suggesting a correlation between this behavior and health anxiety. Therefore, drawing on cognitive – behavioral theory, we explore the link between online health information seeking and health anxiety via a systematic review and meta-analysis of cross-sectional studies. Following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analysis, we ran searches in multiple databases, including PubMed, Web of Science, Embase, Elsevier/Science Direct, Cochrane Database, China National Knowledge Infrastructure, VIP Chinese Database, and Wanfang Data. Our searches identified 16 studies eligible for review, involving 4,920 participants across seven countries. The random-effects meta-analysis revealed a significant positive correlation between online health information seeking and health anxiety (r = 0.28, 95% confidence interval [0.16, 0.41], p < .0001), despite considerable heterogeneity. Furthermore, meta-regression analysis demonstrated that the identity characteristics of the sample, female percentage, sample size, and country all contributed to the heterogeneity across studies. Overall, this meta-analysis provides support for the association between online health information seeking and health anxiety, and helps to elucidate the cognitive – behavioral theory underpinning this phenomenon.

Disclosure statement

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

Author contributions

Conceptualization: Zhenyu Wang, Yi Hu, Bei Li, Zhihan Liu. Methodology: Zhenyu Wang, Yi Hu. Analysis: Zhenyu Wang. Supervision: Bohan Huang, Zhihan Liu. Validation: Zhenyu Wang, Yi Hu. Visualization: Zhenyu Wang, Yi Hu. Writing – original draft: Zhenyu Wang, Yi Hu. Writing – review & editing: Zhenyu Wang, Yi Hu, Guixian Zheng, Bohan Huang. All authors approved the final draft of the manuscript.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Major research project on philosophy and social sciences sponsored by China’s Ministry of Education “Research on the Construction of a Social Policy System to Promote the Common Prosperity of Disadvantaged Groups” [No. 22JZD025] and Sanming Project of Medicine in Shenzhen [No. SZSM202111001].