The Effects of Health Anxiety on Perceived Medical Costs - Research Paper Example

The Effects of Health Anxiety on Perceived Medical Costs ID: Word count: 1197 This experiment studied the possibility of cognitive biases in health anxiety (HA) occurring about cost estimates of health events. The likely cognitive biases caused by health anxiety were the subject of this study. The study was done with regards to the cost estimates of health events occurring. Results have shown that people with heightened health anxiety could make serious misinterpretations of harmless body sensations. They tended to focus excessively on the suspected disease and continually consulted medical practitioners to heal them. These practices often resulted in intense psychology distress. The limitations of the study were that most of the participants in the study were women. Introduction Health anxiety (HA) refers to a condition in which people are preoccupied with the fear of contracting a severe disease (Bailey & Wells, 2015). It is also referred to as hypochondria. Some people even fear that they have already contracted the disease. In either case, there is no trace of organic pathology. These individuals continually seek medical intervention with the hope of getting a vaccine or a cure for their perceived illness. However, because they expect medical consultations, and they want endless reassurance that they are fine, they experience psychological distress (King, 2015). Experts describe anxiety as the result of one’s estimate of the occurrence of an event combined with the fear of the event’s occurrence. Therefore, people with higher anxiety tended to estimate highly the cost and likelihood of their perceived illnesses (Lee, 2015). In this sense, emotional responses resulted from negative interpretations of a particular event and not the events themselves. Anxiety is an emotional response to an imagined danger. The level of anxiety is proportional to the amount of danger perceived. Consequently, if one’s approximations regarding the cost or probability of an event occurring are inflated, then anxiety will also be high (McKenzie, 2015). The typical scenario is that patients usually have unrealistic optimism when it concerns their health. This means that they underestimate the likelihood of an adverse event’s occurrence. Nonetheless, they overestimate the probability of a positive event happening (Reuman, 2015). They perceive themselves being in ill health more than individuals with low health anxiety. Furthermore, people with health anxiety are likely to overestimate the cost of health-related events. Studies on this subject are still ongoing (Manchanda, 2015). Moreover, when people with high health anxiety think that they may be ill, they experience physical symptoms that reinforce their belief. For instance, they might experience tightness in the chest, increased blood pressure, sweating, a dry mouth and confusion (Fergus, 2015).- Interestingly, media campaigns regarding specific physical illnesses can increase the problems for those suffering from high anxiety. Reading or watching programs about particular conditions may cause those with high health anxiety to experience the symptoms of that status (Khademvatani, 2015). There are numerous reasons why individuals worry excessively about their health. For example, they may be facing very stressful periods in their lives. Also, there may be death or illness in the family, or a close relative may have worried about their health excessively when they were young. It may also be due to a one’s personality because some people are born natural worriers due to neuroticism (Harris, 2015). Others may not handle conflicts and emotions appropriately and may take it as a catastrophe when problems in life arise. Also, health anxiety may indicate the presence of mental health conditions such as anxiety disorder or depression. Health anxiety exists in two forms. The first is where a person continually seeks reassurance and information concerning their health. In this case, the individual continually researches the illness from the internet, has frequent tests done and endlessly books medical appointments. The second is where a person exhibits the avoidant behavior. In this case, they avoid medical programs on television and anything that may arouse health anxiety. They may also avoid activities like exercises that are thought to worsen the condition. None of these two variants of high health anxiety is attractive. They need to be addressed so that their vicious cycles are stopped (Rachman, 2015). Drawing from these findings, it could be noticed that people with high health anxiety worry on a daily basis. Therefore, it could be hypothesized that the only solution for high health anxiety is to control the condition instead of seeking to eliminate it. High health anxiety is an illness, and short-term methods need to be implemented to stabilize it as long-term solutions to the problem are considered. Every patient is unique and requires personalized treatment. Methods In this experiment, questionnaires elicited responses from the participants. These answers would be used in determining whether or not the participants had high health anxiety. The questionnaires contained statements for the likelihood of the participants contracting different illnesses. The participants were required to write on a scale of one to ten where they think the probability of getting sick was. Examples of such statements were “I think I might get a stomach infection tomorrow” and “These rashes on my face are a sign of jaundice”. The totals for each statement were added up, and the mean calculated. Participants with an average response above six were considered to have high health anxiety. The rest had little health anxiety. The likely cognitive biases caused by health anxiety were studied in this test. The experiment also attempted to find out the effect of health anxiety on the perceived cost. One hypothesis during the experiment was that individuals with high health anxiety massively overestimate the cost of such events compared to those with low health anxiety (Gierk, 2015). This study involved a random sample of 300 undergraduate students. Respondents were put into two groups based on their short health anxiety inventory (SHAI) (Rachman, 2015). These divisions were labeled as the top third and the bottom third. Next, subjects were given ten events related to health and asked to rate them. The rating was determined by their perceived cost of experiencing the event. Participants filled out two questionnaires at the commencement of their lecture. Design The design of the experiment was quantitative. To determine whether a participant suffered from high health anxiety, the mean of their responses was calculated. This approach was preferred over a qualitative approach because anxiety is an emotion and measuring it is impossible. However, measuring the participants’ reactions to the statements would provide a standard against which to determine whether they had high health anxiety. Materials The materials used in this experiment were questionnaires. The participants had to fill them before beginning their classes. They were asked to be as truthful as possible when giving responses. Three hundred questionnaires were printed and issued randomly to the college students to get accurate answers. The surveys required the participants to state whether they were male or female and their age. Ethics To maintain ethical standards during the experiment, the identities of the participants were not required. The only information required of them was their gender and their age. High moral standards were also maintained by stating the purpose of the experiment before the questionnaire statements began. Participants were told that they were not forced to take part in the study. Those who needed more time to contemplate their responses were told that as soon as they finished, they could drop them at the university library. The researchers would collect them in a week’s time. Results From these above outcomes, it is seen that 19% of the population aged 18, and above suffer from health anxiety. Being a stress disorder, health anxiety is highly treatable but only a third of those suffering from it are treated. The results also show that people with high health anxiety are several times more likely to get hospitalized or visit the doctor. The above study had a standard deviation of 12.17418 and a variance of 148.2107. The mean perceived cost for the people with low health anxiety is 45.03. However, the perceived cost for persons with high health anxiety is 52.62. These results show that persons with high health anxiety have an amplified view of the cost they might incur if they contract the disease. Besides, the number of individuals who suffer from high health anxiety is smaller than the number of people who have little health concern. In the above experiment, out of 160 respondents, only sixty exhibited high health anxiety. The majority of the individuals who participated in the study, however, were female. The presence of a few males shows that they can equally suffer from high health anxiety. Discussion 60% of the responses returned their questionnaires within the allocated time. The difference between individuals with high health anxiety and those with low health anxiety cannot be seen by looking at someone superficially. It is a mental condition. The above results show that even people who think they do not suffer from the disease likely have it. High health anxiety causes distress in people, and it affects their lives on a daily basis. 80% of the female respondents returned their questionnaires. However, less than 20% of males completed and returned their questionnaires. It was difficult to determine if men suffer equally from health anxiety like women (Harris, 2015). One outcome of this experiment is that more organizations should be created to help persons living with anxiety (Shiah, 2015). With these organizations, patients would be able to get numerous benefits such as getting reduced cost therapy in less than a week after submitting their help request. They should also enjoy access to email, live chat services and the helpline of these organizations. Besides, the staff of these health facilities should be qualified volunteers to ensure that the patients receive a personalized experience (Harris, 2015). People living with high anxiety should also access literature that tries to address their problem. With the growth of access to the internet, patients should be able to access a member’s only section of websites that deals with anxiety problems. Moreover, they should be able to access specialist helplines like the psychology information hotline and the psychiatric pharmacy helpline (Patience, 2015). Further research should consider more variables because, in this experiment, participants indicated their perceived cost of some possible health conditions. This means that some people with low health anxiety gave a higher perceived value than those with high health anxiety. Therefore, future studies should aim at standardizing such tests to ensure the outcomes are decisive. Conclusion Many people spend large parts of their lives excessively checking for lumps, marks, rashes, sores and other symptoms that indicate the presence of physical illness (Jeffers, 2015). They may also ask their friends and family to assist them in checking. High anxiety results from the likelihood that they may contract a particular disease. The physical symptoms of anxiety include tightness in the chest, blurred vision, increased heart rate, confusion, sweating and a dry mouth. People with high health anxiety should receive help from organizations that help people living with anxiety (Norr, 2015). References Bailey, R., & Wells, A. (2015). Metacognitive Beliefs Moderate the Relationship between Catastrophic Misinterpretation and Health Anxiety. Journal of Anxiety Disorders. Fergus, T. A., Bardeen, J. R., Gratz, K. L., Fulton, J. J., & Tull, M. T. (2015). The Contribution of Health Anxiety to Retrospectively-Recalled Emergency Department Visits within a Sample of Patients in Residential Substance Abuse Treatment. Cognitive behaviour therapy, 44(1), 1-8. Gierk, B., Kohlmann, S., Toussaint, A., Wahl, I., Brünahl, C. A., Murray, A. M., & Löwe, B. (2015). Assessing somatic symptom burden: A psychometric comparison of the Patient Health Questionnaire—15 (PHQ-15) and the Somatic Symptom Scale—8 (SSS-8). Journal of psychosomatic research, 78(4), 352-355. Harris, M. G., Hobbs, M. J., Burgess, P. M., Pirkis, J. E., Diminic, S., Siskind, D. J. ... & Whiteford, H. A. (2015). Frequency and quality of mental health treatment for affective and anxiety disorders among Australian adults. The Medical journal of Australia, 202(4), 185-189. Jeffers, A. J., Benotsch, E. G., Green, B. A., Bannerman, D., Darby, M., Kelley, T., & Martin, A. M. (2015). Health anxiety and the non-medical use of prescription drugs in young adults: A cross-sectional study. Addictive Behaviors. Khademvatani, K., Aghakhani, N., Esm-Hoseini, G., Hazrati, A., Alinezhad, V., Nazari, H. ... & Arsanjanه, H. (2015). STUDY OF RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SPRITUAL HEALTH, ANXIETY AND DEPRESSION IN ACUTE MYOCARDIAL INFARCTIONPATIENTS HOSPITALIZED IN SEYYEDOSHOHADA HOSPITAL IN URMIA. URMIA MEDICAL JOURNAL, 25(12), 1092-1101. King, L. A., Urbach, J. R., & Stewart, K. E. (2015). Illness Anxiety and Avoidant/Restrictive Food Intake Disorder: Cognitive-behavioral Conceptualization and Treatment. Eating Behaviors. Lee, S., Creed, F. H., Ma, Y. L., & Leung, C. M. (2015). Somatic symptom burden and health anxiety in the population and their correlates. Journal of psychosomatic research, 78(1), 71-76. Manchanda, R., Loggenberg, K., Sanderson, S., Burnell, M., Wardle, J., Gessler, S. ... & Jacobs, I. (2015). Population testing for cancer predisposing BRCA1/BRCA2 mutations in the Ashkenazi-Jewish community: a randomized controlled trial. Journal of the National Cancer Institute, 107(1), dju379. McKenzie, K. J., & Newport, R. (2015). Increased somatic sensations are associated with reduced limb ownership. Journal of psychosomatic research, 78(1), 88-90. Norr, A. M., Albanese, B. J., Oglesby, M. E., Allan, N. P., & Schmidt, N. B. (2015). Anxiety sensitivity and intolerance of uncertainty as potential risk factors for cyberchondria. Journal of affective disorders, 174, 64-69. Patience, A., Amir, N., Ellis, C. J., O’Sullivan, A. T., Faasse, K., Gamble, G., & Petrie, K. J. (2015). Does the early feedback of results improve reassurance following diagnostic testing? A randomized controlled trial in patients undergoing cardiac investigation. Health Psychology, 34(3), 216. Rachman, S. (2015). The evolution of behaviour therapy and cognitive behaviour therapy. Behaviour research and therapy, 64, 1-8. Reuman, L., & Abramowitz, J. S. (2015). Illness Anxiety Disorder. Handbook on Obsessive-Compulsive and Related Disorders, 85. Shiah, Y. J., Chang, F., Chiang, S. K., Lin, I. M., & Tam, W. C. C. (2015). Religion and health: anxiety, religiosity, meaning of life and mental health. Journal of religion and health, 54(1), 35-45. Read More