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A Comparative Study of Health Anxiety in Neurology and Psychiatry Settings

Objectives  Prevalence of health anxiety is highly varied based on different settings and samples studied. This study aimed to assess the prevalence of health anxiety among outpatients attending neurology and psychiatry outpatient setting in tertiary care hospital and understand the clinical correla...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Prabha, Lakshmi, Ganjekar, Sundarnag, Gupta, Vivek, Desai, Geetha, Chaturvedi, Santosh K.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Thieme Medical and Scientific Publishers Private Ltd. 2020
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7055604/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32140015
http://dx.doi.org/10.1055/s-0039-3399395
Descripción
Sumario:Objectives  Prevalence of health anxiety is highly varied based on different settings and samples studied. This study aimed to assess the prevalence of health anxiety among outpatients attending neurology and psychiatry outpatient setting in tertiary care hospital and understand the clinical correlates. Participants and Methods  This was a cross-sectional study conducted in the outpatient settings including participants fulfilling study criteria. The assessments included semi-structured proforma for demographic and clinical details, general hypochondriasis subscale of Illness Behavior Questionnaire, and Short Health Anxiety Inventory. Data were collected in Epi-info and data analysis was done using STATA12. Results  The health anxiety was reported to be 25% and 19% among psychiatry and neurology outpatients, respectively. Higher education level positively correlated with health anxiety. Skilled workers tend to have higher health anxiety than semiskilled workers. Patients with diagnosis of somatoform disorder and multiple diagnosis scored higher on health anxiety in both the settings. Conclusion  Health anxiety appears to be common in psychiatry and neurology settings and needs further evaluation to understand its impact on consultation and health resource usages.