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Health Anxiety From the Pandemic Initiative
Sponsor: IWK Health Centre
Summary
The COVID-19 pandemic intensified health anxiety, a common and costly condition marked by excessive fear of illness and functional impairment. Despite growing prevalence and impact, health anxiety remains under-recognized in clinical practice. Scalable, accessible interventions such as internet-based cognitive behavioral therapy (iCBT) are needed to address this gap. A three-arm randomized controlled trial with a waitlist control group was conducted to evaluate two self-guided digital interventions for health anxiety: THIS WAY UP iCBT and 90SecondHealth Anxiety compared to a control group. Canadian adults meeting eligibility criteria were randomized (1:1:1). Assessments occurred at baseline, post-intervention, and at one- and three-month follow-ups. Primary outcomes were health anxiety, depression, and generalized anxiety.
Official title: Health Anxiety From the Pandemic Initiative (HAPI)
Key Details
Gender
All
Age Range
18 Years - Any
Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Enrollment
278
Start Date
2024-04-02
Completion Date
2025-04-26
Last Updated
2026-10-09
Healthy Volunteers
Yes
Conditions
Interventions
THIS WAY UP iCBT
The THIS WAY UP iCBT program is a 90-day iCBT intervention designed to support individuals experiencing excessive worry about illness, disease, and death. The THIS WAY UP iCBT intervention comprises six sequential, comic-based online lessons, delivered electronically at a rate of one lesson every two weeks. Each lesson follows the narrative of a fictional character navigating health anxiety and acquiring CBT-based coping strategies. The lessons are structured to include four core components: (1) a comic-based narrative introducing key CBT principles, (2) a lesson summary that reinforces core content and provides practical exercises, (3) a downloadable resource section, and (4) a frequently asked questions (FAQ) section.
90SecondHealth Anxiety
The 90SecondHealth Anxiety intervention is a 13-week, e-health intervention consisting of 26 health letters, distributed electronically twice per week.
Locations (1)
IWK Health Centre
Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada