Exploring Correlations Between Psychological Well-Being and Cyberchondria During the Covid-19 Pandemic- A Study on Undergraduate Students in Delhi NCR

Abstract

Cyberchondria is a relatively new field of research that has gained added relevance due to the recent pandemic. It is conceptualised as a condition wherein exposure to the medical information on the internet leads to excessive worry about one’s health and well-being. The condition has been repeatedly observed to have a direct effect on psychological well-being. Despite this the topic has not received the desired attention in empirical studies and the need for micro level studies is apparent.  Against this backdrop, the present study examined the correlation between cyberchondria and psychological well-being during the Covid-19 pandemic. For this purpose, the Psychological Well-being Scale (PWB) and the Cyberchondria Severity Scale-12 (CSS-12) were administered to 324 participants currently pursuing undergraduate courses in Delhi NCR. Purposive sampling was used to select participants (age group: 17-22) from the target population most evidently presumed to be vulnerable to negative consequences of internet use. After processing and editing the data, 16 responses were discarded (n= 308) and the remaining were scored and analysed using Pearson’s product-moment correlation. Results show a mean PWB score of 43.6 and a mean CSS-12 score of 31.5, which further indicates a negative correlation (r= -0.11). However, correlation between the two variables was not significant at 0.05 level.