Health anxiety and attentional bias toward virus‐related stimuli during the COVID‐19 pandemic
Date
2020Author
Cannito, Loreta
Di Crosta, Adolfo
Palumbo, Rocco
Ceccato, Irene
Anzani, Stefano
La Malva, Pasquale
Palumbo, Riccardo
Di Domenico, Alberto
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Show full item recordAbstract
After the COVID-19 worldwide spread, evidence suggested a vast difusion of negative consequences
on people’s mental health.Together with depression and sleep difculties, anxiety symptoms seem to
be the most difused clinical outcome.The current contribution aimed to examine attentional bias for
virus-related stimuli in people varying in their degree of health anxiety (HA). Consistent with previous
literature, it was hypothesized that higher HA would predict attentional bias, tested using a visual
dot-probe task, to virus-related stimuli. Participants were 132 Italian individuals that participated in
the study during the lockdown phase in Italy. Results indicated that the HA level predicts attentional
bias toward virus-related objects.This relationship is double mediated by the belief of contagion
and by the consequences of contagion as assessed through a recent questionnaire developed to
measure the fear for COVID-19.These fndings are discussed in the context of cognitive-behavioral
conceptualizations of anxiety suggesting a risk for a loop efect. Future research directions are
outlined.
Palabras clave
COVID‑19; Pandemic; Health anxiety and attentionalLink to resource
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-73599-8Collections
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