Rising Concerns among Healthcare Students of South Asian Countries- A Study on Cyberchondriasis, Medical Student Disease, and Health Anxiety between MBBS and M.Sc. Clinical Psychology Students

The internet provides a    wide variety of knowledge on a broad spectrum of information including lifestyle and health services. Self-diagnosis, particularly the diagnosis of mental health disorders has become very common with escalated use of social media. With limited knowledge and coping skills, healthcare students in their initial days of exposure to clinical knowledge of psychopathology and psychiatry are likely to have health anxiety. Subject matters such as Cyberchondriasis, Health Anxiety, and Medical Students’ Syndrome and Self Diagnosis are important concerns for healthcare sector professionals and educators to tackle the complications faced by students. The current study aimed to explore the prevalence of Cyberchondriasis, Medical Student Disease, and Health Anxiety among healthcare students specialising in the fields of MBBS, and M.Sc. in Clinical Psychology in South Asian Countries. A cross-sectional study was conducted on 202 South Asian (India and Bangladesh) healthcare students specialising in MBBS (N=101) and M.Sc. Clinical Psychology (N=101) who are exposed to subjects namely Psychopathology and Psychiatry. The tools were selected based on their relevance to the set aim of the study which included the Cyberchondria Severity Scale (CSS-12), The Medical Student’s Disease (MSD) Perception Scale and Distress Scale, and the Short Health Anxiety Inventory- 18 (SHAI-18). In addition, the medical history of the past six months was also taken into consideration. Descriptive Statistics (means and SD), One-way ANOVA, and Pearson’s Correlation were employed. The results showed that Cyberchondriasis was prevalent at a moderate rate among healthcare students (90.5% scored moderate and 2.97% scored high on the CSS-12 Scale), 26.73% had significant Health Anxiety, and significant difference were found in the level of Medical Student’s Disease (Perception & Distress Dimension), and Health Anxiety between the criterion groups. The result also indicated a significant positive relationship between Health Anxiety and Cyberchondriasis, Medical Student’s Disease (Perception & Distress Dimension), and clinical history of the past six months.