The effect of cyberchondria on anxiety and surgical fear levels in surgical oncology patients

Abstract This study was conducted to examine the relationship between cyberchondria, surgical fear and anxiety in patients undergoing oncological surgery. This descriptive study was conducted with 163 patients in the general surgery clinics of a university hospital in Türkiye between January and December 2023. The study revealed that mean total scores of cyberchondria, surgical fear and anxiety scales were moderate with values of 39.87 ± 12.66, 45.84 ± 19.80, and 28.83 ± 11.76, respectively. A moderately significant positive correlation was observed between cyberchondria and surgical fear and anxiety levels (r:0.688, and r:0.684; p = 0.000, respectively), while a strongly significant positive relationship was found between surgical fear and anxiety levels (r: 0.759, p = 0.000). The results also demonstrated that 47% of patients’ fear of surgery could be attributed to the independent variable of cyberchondria (R 2 : 0.470). The results demonstrated that 46% of the variance in anxiety levels could be attributed to the cyberchondria independent variable (R 2 : 0.468). The pervasive use of the internet has given rise to a growing tendency among individuals to seek disease-related information online. The study found that the patients exhibited moderate levels of cyberchondria, with an increase in the tendency corresponding to an increase in surgical fear and anxiety. It is recommended that healthcare professionals share detailed information with patients in a way that does not encourage them to engage in excessive online medical research and allocate sufficient time to patients to alleviate their surgical anxiety and fear.