Prediction of health anxiety based on metacognitive beliefs, Alexithymia and experiential avoidance in nurses

People with health anxiety have misconceptions and incorrect interpretations of health and excessive sensitivity to their physical symptoms. Therefore, the current research was conducted with the aim of predicting health anxiety based on metacognitive beliefs, Alexithymia and experiential avoidance in nurses.

The method of this study was descriptive-correlation. The research community consisted of all nurses in the emergency department of hospitals and medical centers in Kermanshah. In this study, 180 people were selected through convenience sampling and answered the Acceptance and Action Questionnaire, Toronto Alexithymia Scale, Short Form of Health Anxiety Inventory and Metacognitions Questionnaire. The collected data were analyzed using Pearson's correlation coefficient and multivariate regression analysis in SPSS-24 software.

The results showed that there was a positive and significant relationship between metacognitive beliefs, Alexithymia, and experiential avoidance with health anxiety in nurses (P<0.01). The results of multivariate regression analysis also revealed that %76.5 of the variance of nurses' health anxiety is explained by metacognitive beliefs, Alexithymia, and experiential avoidance.

According to the results, it can be said that if people's evaluation of physical symptoms is problematic only when specific metacognitive beliefs are high, therapeutic interventions that target metacognitive beliefs instead of symptom evaluation may be more effective. Also, treatments based on acceptance and commitment and mentalization that lead to reduction of experiential avoidance and increase of mentalization capacity and subsequently reduction of health anxiety are suggested for nurses.