[01] Nur Aliaa Shairah Binti Muhammad Shukri, Faculty of Medicine, Melaka Manipal Medical College, Manipal Academy of Higher Education (MAHE), Melaka, Malaysia. [02] Mohamad Haris Fadillah Bin Azmil, Faculty of Medicine, Melaka Manipal Medical College, Manipal Academy of Higher Education (MAHE), Melaka, Malaysia. [03] Donna Lisa Julius, Faculty of Medicine, Melaka Manipal Medical College, Manipal Academy of Higher Education (MAHE), Melaka, Malaysia. [04] Nur Diyana Binti Muhammad Azhar, Faculty of Medicine, Melaka Manipal Medical College, Manipal Academy of Higher Education (MAHE), Melaka, Malaysia.

COVID-19 was declared as a “pandemic” on the 11th of March, 2020 by WHO, as the virus spread increasingly worldwide. In the midst of the covid-19 pandemic, health anxiety was expected to worsen, with individuals becoming increasingly concerned regarding their health. The objective of this study was to determine the association of cyberchondria with health anxiety related to the Covid-19 pandemic among the students of Melaka Manipal Medical College, Muar and Melaka Campus, Malaysia. Our study also proposes to determine the prevalence of health anxiety as well as the association of gender, religion, ethnicity, general internet connectivity, past personal and family history of serious medical illness with health anxiety related to the Covid-19 pandemic among the MMMC students. We conducted a cross-sectional study among the undergraduate students of MMMC, Malaysia by using an online survey. This study was carried out from the month of June 2020 up until July 2020, for a total of 6 weeks duration. Non-probability purposive sampling was used to enroll students in our study. Participants in this study consisted of MMMC undergraduate students from a variety of courses, namely Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS), Bachelor of Dental Surgery (BDS) and Foundation in Science (FIS). They responded to our questionnaires which consisted of 5 parts; (1) Informed Consent, (2) Social-Demographic information, (3) Cyberchondria Severity Scale (CSS), (4) Short Health Anxiety Inventory (SHAI), (5) Coronavirus Anxiety Scale (CAS). Unpaired t test, ANOVA, and correlation were used as statistical tests and the level of significance was set as P<0.05. A total of 175 students participated in our study and we found that participants scored 28.57 in the cyberchondria severity scale with minimum and maximum scores of 13 and 47 respectively. As for the health anxiety scale, the mean score was 13.9. A mean score of only 0.91 for the coronavirus anxiety scale was recorded among the MMMC undergraduates. The association between cyberchondria and health anxiety was low and positive, while on the other hand the association between cyberchondria and coronavirus anxiety was positive but little if any. Lastly, the association between health anxiety and coronavirus anxiety was low and positive. All the associations described were indeed significant. However, in our study, we noted that there is no significant association between sociodemographic profile (religion, gender, ethnicity), general internet connectivity, past family history and personal history of chronic illness with health anxiety.

Cyberchondria, Health Anxiety, Covid-19, Undergraduate Students

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