The Mediating Role of Death Anxiety and Corona Anxiety in the Relationship between Resilience and Hypochondriasis among Nurses in Tehran: A Descriptive Study

Hypochondriasis (Hypochondria) is one of the most important phenomena that has disrupted the lives of people, especially nurses and medical staff, during the outbreak of corona. Therefore, the present study was conducted with the aim of determining the mediating role of death anxiety and corona anxiety in the relationship between resilience and hypochondriasis.

In this descriptive study, the statistical population included nurses from hospitals in districts 10, 14, 15, and 20 of Tehran in the first four months of 2022. Two-hundred and fifty participants were selected by convenience sampling. They responded to Evans’ Hypochondria Questionnaire, Connor and Davidson's Resilience Scale, Templer's Death Anxiety Scale, and Alipour et al.’s Corona-related Anxiety Questionnaire. Structural equation modeling (SEM) and path analysis were used to analyze the data.

The findings of this research showed that there is a significant negative relationship between resilience and death anxiety, corona anxiety, and hypochondriasis (p<0.05). According to the research results, resilience, death anxiety, and corona anxiety explain a total of 52% of the variance of hypochondriasis. The results of the path analysis showed that resilience through corona anxiety (t=2.481, β= -0.541) and death anxiety (t=2.252, β= -0.482) had a significant indirect effect (mediating) on hypochondriasis (p<0.05).

The findings of the present study showed the role of death anxiety and corona anxiety on resilience and hypochondriasis. It is recommended to provide mental health services in the form of resilience training sessions in order to reduce and prevent disease anxiety, focusing on reducing death anxiety and corona anxiety.