What is remembered?: The recall of health-related information in cyberchondria and health anxiety

Abstract

Cyberchondria is excessive online seeking of health-related information followed by distress. We aimed to examine the effects of cyberchondria and the credibility of the health-related sources on recall, and to investigate cyberchondria as a mediator between health anxiety (HA) and recall. Participants (N = 194) read about an alleged disease from sources of various credibility (high, low, neutral), filled in the HA Questionnaire and the Short Cyberchondria Scale, and recalled the information. No effect of source credibility on recall was found. Participants with high cyberchondria recalled more information, even when HA was controlled. Better recall in high HA was mediated by cyberchondria. A direct effect of HA on recall was found only for distorted recall of health information. This indicates different recall patterns in people with high HA depending on their cyberchondria, probably due to elaborated health schemas in cyberchondria, and to the disregard of source credibility in persons with high HA and low cyberchondria.

Keywords

• memory recall
• memory distortion
• source credibility
• cyberchondria
• health anxiety