Survey study, 2026
Do young women with PMS search online for health information more and develop health anxiety from it?
Yes. Young women with PMS were more likely to search online for health information and reported higher health anxiety from internet searches. PMS severity remained linked to health anxiety even after accounting for stress and internet time.
What they did
Cross-sectional study of 451 nursing students. They used questionnaires to measure PMS symptoms and cyberchondria (anxiety about health triggered by internet searches).
What they found
Young women most frequently searched online for information about menstrual irregularity, dysmenorrhea, and PMS symptoms. There was a significant positive correlation between PMS scores and health anxiety scores. Daily internet use was positively associated with both PMS and health anxiety scores, but the associations were small. Even after accounting for income, alcohol use, stress, and internet time, PMS severity remained significantly associated with health anxiety.
What it means for you
Women with PMS tend to search online for health information more often and develop anxiety from what they find. Healthcare providers should help women with PMS learn to use reliable online resources and build digital health literacy. The main limitation is that this is cross-sectional, so we cannot know if PMS causes more searching or if health anxiety from searching makes PMS worse.
451
nursing students studied
positive
correlation between PMS and health anxiety
small
magnitude of internet use association
About the study
- Original title
- Cyberchondria levels and internet use behaviors of young women with premenstrual syndrome: a cross-sectional study
- Authors
- Duygu Güleç Şatır, Oya Kavlak, Sümeyye Bakır et al.
- Journal
- BMC Psychology
- Year
- 2026
- Study design
- Survey study
- Participants
- 451
- What was tested
- None. This was an observational study.
- Open access
- Yes
- Read the paper
- doi.org/10.1186/s40359-026-05729-2
Topics
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