Exploring the link between chronic illness adaptation and health anxiety: insights from a primary care outpatient clinic in Turkey

Background
The rising life expectancy and advancements in health care have led to an upsurge in chronic diseases, highlighting the emergence of significant societal and public health challenges.

Objectives
We aimed to examine the effects of the health anxiety of individuals with chronic diseases on their adjustment to their chronic diseases.

Material and methods
This study was designed as observational, descriptive and cross-sectional. The population of the study consisted of individuals who had a chronic disease and were treated in a family medicine outpatient clinic for any reason between February and March 2022. The sampling method was determined to be probabilistic and sequential, and a total of 107 individuals aged 18 years and older who volunteered to participate in the study with these characteristics were included in the study. Data was collected using a questionnaire that included descriptive characteristics of the patients and researcher-generated information about the disease, as well as the Chronic Disease Adjustment Scale and the Health Anxiety Scale.

Results
A statistically significant inverse relationship was found between patients’ scores on the Health Anxiety Scale and scores on the Chronic Disease Adjustment Scale and the psychological and social adjustment subscales.

Conclusions
With the interventions to be made on patients’ health anxiety, it will be possible to adapt the patients to their chronic diseases so that regular drug use and social well-being will be possible for the patients.