Age, COVID-19-related fear, insomnia symptoms and cyberchondria: a mediation model

Introduction: The subject of our study was the role of age, fear of COVID-19 infection and insomnia as predictors of cyberchondria in a Polish sample. We were also interested in whether insomnia mediated the relationship between fear of COVID-19 infection and cyberchondria in the entire sample.Material and methods: The study sample consisted of 504 people, including 420 women and 84 men, aged 18 to 76 years (M +/- SD 30.49 +/- 10.28), who were recruited through an online platform. Cyberchondria was assessed using the Polish version of the Cyberchon-dria Severity Scale. An 11-point numerical rating scale was used to measure the intensity of fear of COVID-19 infection for oneself. Insomnia symptoms were meas-ured using the Polish version of the Athenian Insomnia Scale.Results: The correlation coefficients indicated positive relationships between the fear of COVID-19 infection and insomnia and cyberchondria, while age correlat-ed negatively with cyberchondria. The hierarchical multivariate linear regression analysis revealed that COVID-19-related fear was the best predictor of cy-berchondria. Insomnia and age were also cyberchon-dria predictors, but to a lesser extent. The mediation analysis revealed a significant indirect relationship between COVID-19-related fear and cyberchondria through insomnia symptoms.Conclusions: We observed that COVID-19-related fear and, to a lesser extent, age and insomnia were cy-berchondria predictors. We also found both direct and indirect relationships between COVID-19-related fear and cyberchondria through insomnia.