Hypochondriacs, or people needlessly worrying that they are sick or will be sick, are at high risk of developing heart disease, researchers suggest.
Anxiety has long been known to be a risk factor for cardiovascular diseases and it would appear that health anxiety — the persistent idea that one is sick or will be developing serious sickness, which prompts a person to seek immediate medical attention — is no exception. However, just because there is no real physical illness doesn't mean that health anxiety should be taken lightly and not properly treated.
For a study published in the journal BMJ Open, the researchers used data from 7,052 individuals part of the Norwegian Hordaland Health Study, a long-term collaborative research project involving the University of Bergen and the National Health Screening Service, as well as local health services.
Born from 1953 to 1957, the participants were tasked with filling out questionnaires regarding their lifestyle, educational attainment and health. They also underwent a physical examination between 1997 and 1999, which involved blood tests and measurements for blood pressure, height and weight.
To assess health anxiety levels, the researchers used what is called the Whiteley Index. A validated scale, it features 14 items that can be scored from 1 to 5. Participants who scored at least 31 in the scale were considered to be dealing with health anxiety and formed the top 10 percent of the subjects.
Up to 2009, the researchers kept tabs on the participants using national data from hospital treatments and death certificates, tracking their heart health. Those who died due to or received treatment for coronary artery disease within one year of participating in the study were excluded from the results on the basis that they might have been ill already.
Overall, acute angina or a heart attack was experienced by 3.3 percent of the participants, with just over 7 years as average time to first incident. However, twice as many of those who were diagnosed with health anxiety had succumbed to heart disease compared to those who weren't hypochondriacs.
Health Anxiety And Heart Disease Risk
The researchers acknowledged that established risk factors can explain a portion of the association, but said health anxiety still played a role in heightening heart disease risk. They came to this conclusion after taking into account other factors that could have influenced the results.
Based on their study results, the researchers saw that those suffering from health anxiety have 73 percent likelier to get heart disease than those with a different state of mind. And the higher a participant's score on the Whiteley Index was, the higher their risks were of developing a heart condition.
The findings highlight the importance of properly diagnosing and treating health anxiety, but researchers admit the study is observational in nature so no definite cause and effect conclusions can be drawn. They also pointed out that it is possible for health anxiety to co-exist with other mental health issues like depression.
