Bendigo Family Study Research at PSANZ 2025: Are Regional and Rural Parents Vulnerable to Cyberchondria in Pregnancy.

We congratulate one of our young investigators Dr Jemma Billinghurst who presented her research that investigated whether our new rural parents are vulnerable to cyberchondria. Cyberchondria is a condition where individuals experience distress about a health-related condition that causes repeated or excessive online searches for health-related information. Cyberchondria is common in people with high levels of “health anxiety” aggravated by poor access to healthcare information.   

Cyberchondria is associated with adverse consequences including impacts on work and social capacity and may predispose individuals to be falsely reassured or conversely excessively prompted to seek medical attention. Regional and rural families may be prone to cyberchondria due to difficulty of access from care providers.  

We explored cyberchondria scores in a sample of new regional and rural parents who were enrolled in our Bendigo Family Study.

The key findings were:
* Cyberchondria scores were significantly higher in new mothers compared to new fathers (27.3 (8.2) vs 23.5 (7.1); p=0.04).
* This gender difference was due to significant differences in the "excessive subscale" domain (9.8(2.8) vs 7.0(2.6); p<0.0001). The other subscale domains were not significantly different between new mothers and fathers (all p>0.05). 

Excessive subscale refers to an excessive need to seek information out on the internet.

New mothers in regional and rural locations may be vulnerable to cyberchondria, in particular excessive searching for health-related information.
 
We plan further studies to explore how we can ensure optimal delivery of reliable information to new rural parents to prevent harmful excessive searching for information on the internet.

regards

​Professor Julie Quinlivan
​Bendigo Family Study