Health anxiety and social health among health care workers and health volunteers exposed to coronavirus disease in Iran (2020): A structural equation modeling

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to examine the structural relationships between health anxiety and social health among Health Care Workers exposed to covid-19 in Iran. METHOD: The research was an online-survey and cross-sectional study. The sample consisted of 735 Health Care Workers and health volunteers in Iran from 13 April to 4 May 2020. Three standardized pre-tested questionnaires were used to collect data including social health, health anxiety and corona-related questions. Data were analyzed by SPSS 22 and Amos 24 software. RESULTS: The majority of the respondents were males and 51.4%, were married. Fifty-six percent of the participants were employed and 5.1 percent of respondents had covid-19. 52.6% of respondents are satisfied with the government's performance in managing corona virus. 83% of health anxiety changes are explained by social health. CONCLUSION: Increasing public awareness, efforts to reduce social anxiety and stress, and improving social functioning and social support can be part of the interventions of health policy makers and social experts.