Hypochondriasis and its association with internet use among medical students

Introduction: Medical education and career is the most physically and mentally demanding career, with obvious stressors such as long clinical hours, extensive study and arduous assessments. Amongst these, hypochondrial concerns are a major overlooked factor. Addressed as "Medical students’ disease" (MSD), nosophobia and others, it has been proved, and disproved as a stressor by various researches. Moreover, with the availability of extensive information on the Internet, validating such concerns is more easier now than ever, also giving birth to the concept of ‘Cyberchondria’. This study aims to dig deeper into learning about such hypochondrial concerns amongst medical students, and find out the role of Internet use as a cause of such concerns and existence of cyberchondria in medical students.
Methods: This is a cross sectional study, comprising self-administered questionnaires distributed among undergraduate medical students of first to fifth year. Questionnaire included demographic details, general information regarding internet use, and Whiteley’s index to assess hypochondrial concerns.
Results: A total of 384 responses were analyzed, with 75.6% females and 24.4% males. 64.8% of participants admitted their lives to be affected by internet use, with 55% using the internet to look up their symptoms. 66.1% participants were not satisfied with their overall health, with more than two-thirds (70.9%) admitting being mentally affected by unexplained aches and pains in their body. Whiteley scores revealed a mean score of 29.76, with 40.1% population scoring above the cut-off value of 33, indicating significant hypochondrial concerns, with around two thirds being females.
Conclusion: A relatively large population was found to have hypochondrial concerns and association with internet use was found, indicating the need to address the issue by organizing counselling session for students to alleviate their concerns. Through knowledge that such concerns are a part of learning process, students can be taught techniques to help cope with their worries and anxiety towards their health.