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Concern about the COVID-19 pandemic is driving an increase in media consumption. While media sources such as the Internet can be substantial repositories of health information during epidemic diseases, they may also have negative psychological consequences, such as increasing anxiety. It is imperative to determine what effect Internet sources have on COVID-19 anxiety. The purpose of this study was to explore whether online health information utilization and exposure to COVID-19 Internet news predict COVID-19 anxiety. A convenience sample of 427 Iranian college students completed the COVID-19 Anxiety Questionnaire and Online Health Information Utilization Questionnaire. Participants were also asked to rate their online news usage related to COVID-19. Pearson correlation and multiple regression analyses revealed that online health information utilization and COVID-19 Internet news usage significantly predicted COVID-19 anxiety. Greater frequency of Internet news use and online health information about COVID-19 was linked to higher anxiety levels. These findings suggest that the Internet plays a remarkable role in COVID-19 anxiety.
Keywords: COVID-19; Internet; Media
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has been declared a public health emergency (Yoo, 2020). The number of reported cases is increasing as of April 2020, and COVID-19 has become a global health concern (Wang et al., 2020). It provokes economic and social disruptions (Shigemura et al., 2020) and medical staff and community members are reportedly experiencing psychological problems (Kang et al., 2020; Xiang, et al., 2020). Person-to-person transmission (Jernigan, 2020), high reproduction rate (Wu et al., 2020), failure in treatment (Lai et al., 2020), rumors and misinformation around its origins (Calisher et al., 2020), exaggerated and sensational news and images (Shigemura et al., 2020), and possible rebound (The Novel Coronavirus Pneumonia Emergency Response Epidemiology Team, 2020) are contributing to the worldwide panic. In addition, COVID-19 has cold-like symptoms, such as fever, cough, and shortness of breath (Chen et al., 2020), making it difficult to distinguish from a mild cold without clinical testing. This has caused many who only suffer from common conditions, such as colds or allergies, to worry that they have COVID-19.
COVID-19 as a pandemic can cause feelings of worry, fear, and tension (Xiang et al., 2020). Moreover, the negative consequences of pandemics are not limited to physical health; economic and social consequences contribute to high levels of anxiety and...