Health anxiety and the internet: understanding cyberchondria and behavioural patterns of Australians

The main aim of this thesis is to evaluate whether cyberchondria constitutes a distinct construct, separate from general phenomena such as health anxiety, generalised anxiety disorder, obsessive compulsive disorder, problematic internet use, and health literacy. More specifically, the objectives of chapter 1 were to understand the current literature on the topic, the aim of chapter 2 was to conduct an updated systematic review whereby investigating the relationship between health anxiety, online health information seeking and cyberchondria. In chapter 3, the focus was to investigate the connection between health anxiety and cyberchondria as well as the connection to other constructs conducted through a correlational study. In chapter 4 a Think Aloud study was carried out to explore how health information is searched, read, focused on and how it is used by individuals to draw upon to make conclusions. Lastly, chapter 5 and chapters 6 highlight the study findings and future directions.