title: The affective response to health-related information and its relationship to health anxiety: an ambulatory approach.
abstract: Affective reactions to health-related information play a central role in health anxiety. Therefore, using ambulatory assessment, we analysed the time course of negative affect in a control group (CG, n = 60) which only rated their negative affect and an experimental group (EG, n = 97) which also rated the presence of somatic symptoms (e.g., back pain). By means of mixed regression models, we observed a decline of negative affect following the symptom self-ratings in the EG and a stable affect in the CG. The decline of negative affect was not moderated by the degree of health anxiety. Our findings might indicate that evaluating one's health status leads to a general reduction of negative affect in healthy individuals. The results of the study are in line with a bidirectional symptom perception model and underline the crucial role of affect regulation in the processing of health-related information.
authors: a Department of Clinical Psychology , Johannes Gutenberg University , Mainz , Germany.
authors: Fabian
authors: F
authors: Jasper
authors: Wolfgang
authors: W
authors: Hiller
authors: Matthias
authors: M
authors: Berking
authors: Thilo
authors: T
authors: Rommel
authors: Michael
authors: M
authors: Witthöft
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000339:Affect; D001007:Anxiety; D059026:Diagnostic Self Evaluation; D005260:Female; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Anxiety; Emotions; Health behaviour; Negative affect; Self-perception; Somatic symptoms