Latent profiles of cyberchondria among nursing interns: the differential mediating role of health anxiety in the relationship between work stress and profile membership.

Authors

Jiahao Yuan, Xiangrong Wang, Yong Fang, Huijuan He, Mengying Li, Na Zhang

Published in

Frontiers in public health. Volume 14. Pages 1899742. Epub Jul 27, 2026.

Abstract

In the digital health era, the internet has become a primary channel for the public to access health information. However, fragmented and non-professional online content can easily foster cyberchondria. Nursing interns-being a transitional group with foundational medical knowledge yet facing significant clinical practice stress-are particularly vulnerable to cyberchondria. Nevertheless, existing studies have predominantly focused on general university students, with limited in-depth examination of the heterogeneous manifestations of cyberchondria among nursing interns. Therefore, this study aims to identify latent classes of cyberchondria among nursing interns and to examine the associations of work stress with profile membership and the indirect associational pathways of health anxiety consistent with hypothesized mediation pathways.
A convenience sampling method was used to recruit 538 nursing interns from 14 tertiary Grade-A hospitals in Hubei Province between September and November 2025. To collect relevant data, participants completed a general information questionnaire, the Chinese version of the Short Cyberchondria Scale, the Short Health Anxiety Inventory, and the Nursing Internship Stress Scale. Subsequently, latent profile analysis was employed to identify latent classes of cyberchondria among the nursing interns.
Cyberchondria among nursing interns could be classified into four latent classes: the low cyberchondria-apathetic type (8.7%), the moderate cyberchondria-prudent type (44.2%), the relatively high cyberchondria-irritable type (38.0%), and the high cyberchondria-obsessive type (9.1%). Work stress was negatively associated with membership in the low cyberchondria-apathetic type (β = -0.13, P = 0.019), positively associated with membership in the relatively high cyberchondria-irritable type (β = 0.10, P = 0.037), and showed no statistically significant direct association on membership in the high cyberchondria-obsessive type (β = -0.04, P = 0.382). Health anxiety exhibited differential indirect associational pathways between work stress and three of the four cyberchondria types, with full mediation observed for the high cyberchondria-obsessive type (standardized effect value = 0.105, P < 0.001).
There is significant heterogeneity in cyberchondria among nursing interns. Work stress is associated with elevated cyberchondria by increasing health anxiety. Therefore, reducing work stress and implementing interventions that target health anxiety represent effective strategies for reducing cyberchondria in this population.

PMID:
42577220
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 11 Aug 2026.

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