Insights into the Antecedents of Cyberchondria

This research involves three essays to examine a paradigm for assessing cyberchondria, a condition marked by excess health-related internet searching and increased worry concerning a person's well-being. Cyberchondria could be a significant public health threat because of the prevalent use of the Internet and the probable detrimental impacts of examining health information online in an unmoderated environment. This study examines the antecedents of cyberchondria, equipping health strategists with understanding about ways to tailor their educational and communication strategies to curb cyberchondria. Data was collected from the Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk) by posting an online survey link to recruit participants from the USA. To ensure data quality, the best practices of survey design were followed. To deal with common method bias, we followed both procedural and statistical methods. At the very outset, construct validity was evaluated. The framework was examined through the partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). Data was analyzed using conditional process analysis through the regression-centric procedure. Unlike previous studies which mostly focus on direct effects, in this research, the focus was on the mediation, moderation, and moderated mediation effects for hypothesis testing. Therefore, this research broadens our view of the antecedents of cyberchondria from a more systematic standpoint.