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Increased Frequency of Health Anxiety in Health Science Students: a Cross Sectional Study in a Greek University

BACKGROUND: Ectopic Health Sciences students often experience higher level of stress due to clinical knowledge, and it has been reported that they frequently develop worries and symptoms of illness. These observations had lead to the hypothesis that studying health sciences may increase the risk for...

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Autores principales: Papadopoulou, Androniki, Koureas, Michalis, Farmakis, Alexandros, Sirakouli, Argyro, Papathanasiou, Ioanna V., Gourgoulianis, Konstantinos I.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Academy of Medical Sciences of Bosnia and Herzegovina 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8385724/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34483454
http://dx.doi.org/10.5455/medarh.2021.75.221-228
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author Papadopoulou, Androniki
Koureas, Michalis
Farmakis, Alexandros
Sirakouli, Argyro
Papathanasiou, Ioanna V.
Gourgoulianis, Konstantinos I.
author_facet Papadopoulou, Androniki
Koureas, Michalis
Farmakis, Alexandros
Sirakouli, Argyro
Papathanasiou, Ioanna V.
Gourgoulianis, Konstantinos I.
author_sort Papadopoulou, Androniki
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Ectopic Health Sciences students often experience higher level of stress due to clinical knowledge, and it has been reported that they frequently develop worries and symptoms of illness. These observations had lead to the hypothesis that studying health sciences may increase the risk for developing health anxiety. OBJECTIVE: To investigate the correlation between studying health sciences and health anxiety risk in students of a Greek university. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted among health science and non-health science students from the University of Thessaly, Greece. The 14 item - Short Health Anxiety Inventory (SHAI) was used to measure students’ health anxiety. Univariable and multivariable logistic regression analyses were used to test the hypothesis. RESULTS: The population sample consisted of 562 health science students and 204 agriculture and computer science students. The prevalence of health anxiety (SHAI score >14) was 18.1% (95% CI 15.4%-21.1%) while 8.3% (95% CI 6.4%-10.5%) of the participants suffered from clinical health anxiety (SHAI score >18). Health science students had higher SHAI scores compared to non-health science students. Multivariable analysis revealed an increased risk for health anxiety in health science students (OR: 2.01, 95% CI: 1.02-3.97, p=0.044). Health anxiety was also associated with sex (female) (p<0,008) and the presence of health anxiety in a family member (p<0,001). CONCLUSION: The current study identified studying health sciences as a determinant of health anxiety in students of a Greek university, after considering several confounding factors. This relatively neglected hypothesis should be further examined, preferably in a prospective cohort design.
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spelling pubmed-83857242021-09-02 Increased Frequency of Health Anxiety in Health Science Students: a Cross Sectional Study in a Greek University Papadopoulou, Androniki Koureas, Michalis Farmakis, Alexandros Sirakouli, Argyro Papathanasiou, Ioanna V. Gourgoulianis, Konstantinos I. Med Arch Original Paper BACKGROUND: Ectopic Health Sciences students often experience higher level of stress due to clinical knowledge, and it has been reported that they frequently develop worries and symptoms of illness. These observations had lead to the hypothesis that studying health sciences may increase the risk for developing health anxiety. OBJECTIVE: To investigate the correlation between studying health sciences and health anxiety risk in students of a Greek university. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted among health science and non-health science students from the University of Thessaly, Greece. The 14 item - Short Health Anxiety Inventory (SHAI) was used to measure students’ health anxiety. Univariable and multivariable logistic regression analyses were used to test the hypothesis. RESULTS: The population sample consisted of 562 health science students and 204 agriculture and computer science students. The prevalence of health anxiety (SHAI score >14) was 18.1% (95% CI 15.4%-21.1%) while 8.3% (95% CI 6.4%-10.5%) of the participants suffered from clinical health anxiety (SHAI score >18). Health science students had higher SHAI scores compared to non-health science students. Multivariable analysis revealed an increased risk for health anxiety in health science students (OR: 2.01, 95% CI: 1.02-3.97, p=0.044). Health anxiety was also associated with sex (female) (p<0,008) and the presence of health anxiety in a family member (p<0,001). CONCLUSION: The current study identified studying health sciences as a determinant of health anxiety in students of a Greek university, after considering several confounding factors. This relatively neglected hypothesis should be further examined, preferably in a prospective cohort design. Academy of Medical Sciences of Bosnia and Herzegovina 2021-06 /pmc/articles/PMC8385724/ /pubmed/34483454 http://dx.doi.org/10.5455/medarh.2021.75.221-228 Text en © 2021 Androniki Papadopoulou, Michalis Koureas, Alexandros Farmakis, Argyro Sirakouli, Ioanna V. Papathanasiou, Konstantinos I. Gourgoulianis https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) ) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Original Paper
Papadopoulou, Androniki
Koureas, Michalis
Farmakis, Alexandros
Sirakouli, Argyro
Papathanasiou, Ioanna V.
Gourgoulianis, Konstantinos I.
Increased Frequency of Health Anxiety in Health Science Students: a Cross Sectional Study in a Greek University
title Increased Frequency of Health Anxiety in Health Science Students: a Cross Sectional Study in a Greek University
title_full Increased Frequency of Health Anxiety in Health Science Students: a Cross Sectional Study in a Greek University
title_fullStr Increased Frequency of Health Anxiety in Health Science Students: a Cross Sectional Study in a Greek University
title_full_unstemmed Increased Frequency of Health Anxiety in Health Science Students: a Cross Sectional Study in a Greek University
title_short Increased Frequency of Health Anxiety in Health Science Students: a Cross Sectional Study in a Greek University
title_sort increased frequency of health anxiety in health science students: a cross sectional study in a greek university
topic Original Paper
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8385724/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34483454
http://dx.doi.org/10.5455/medarh.2021.75.221-228
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