Evaluation of Hypochondriasis Prevalence and Related Factors in Students of Shahroud Islamic Azad University of Medical Sciences in 2014

Background and Aims Hypochondriasis is a psychiatric disorder in which despite the physical health a person believes in existence of a serious illness and concerns about it. Considering that there are few researches on this disease in Iran, this study examines the prevalence of hypochondriasis and its related factors among Students of Shahroud Islamic Azad University of Medical Sciences in 2014. Materials and Methods: This was a descriptive-cross sectional study in which the prevalence of hypochondriasis and its related factors was assessed using demographic specification form and Evans hypochondriasis-36 questionnaire. In this study, 229 Students of Shahroud Islamic Azad University of Medical Sciences were participated. Students answers to questions were analyzed with significance level of 0.05? using SPSS-v20 and descriptive and inferential statistics Results: The average of population’s age was 22.01±2.62 years . 70.3% of them were females, and 63.8% of them were living in dorms and 61.1% were undergraduate. Also the mean and standard deviation of student's score was 19.74±6.32. There was a statistically significant relationship between students’ mean scores and their residence status, educational level, field of study and age. Conclusion: According to the prevalence of hypochondriasis in conducted studies in Iran which is higher than global statistics, further researches through diagnostic conformity with psychiatric examination are recommended in this field to be conducted.