A review on online health search behavior (cyberchondria)

The internet has negative effects on people's physical and mental health. Cyberchondria has been defined as the behavior of people to obtain information about their health online in an excessive and repetitive way. As a major problem, cyberchondria has been studied in recent years in the psychology literature. An increase in a person's health anxiety and search for health information on the internet are responsible for cyberchondria behavior. This may cause the corruption of daily functionality, as well as increase orientation to the internet as a search for security and become a continuous behavior pattern. Variables such as insecurity to health institutions, misinterpretation of bodily sensations, media influence, and low education level are among the predisposing and precipitating factors for cyberchondria. Factors such as the rapid dissemination of information on the internet, the speed of scientific developments, the increase of state-supported information and aid sites, the internet is a resource for free and easy information, the policies of pharmaceutical companies and private health insurance institutions, and the reinforcement of being healthy in the media are effective in maintaining the behavior of cyberchondria. Cyberchondria shows comorbidity with different psychopathologies such as health anxiety, obsessive-compulsive disorder, somatization disorder, and problematic internet use. In our century, in which scientific and technological developments are taking place very quickly, a good understanding of new problems such as cyberchondria as a negative output of these developments is considered important in knowing the concept and developing treatment approaches.