• Parvati Singh, William G Cumberland, Dominic Ugarte, Tim-Allen Bruckner, and Sean D Young.
• University of California Institute for Prediction Technology, University of California, Irvine, Irvine, CA, United States.
• J. Med. Internet Res. 2020 Sep 10; 22 (9): e21490.

BackgroundEvidence from past pandemics suggests that fear, uncertainty, and loss of control during large-scale public health crises may lead to increased pandemic-related information seeking, particularly among persons predisposed to high anxiety. In such groups, a greater consumption of information pertaining to the COVID-19 pandemic may increase anxiety.ObjectiveIn this study, we examine the association between online activity and Generalized Anxiety Disorder 7 (GAD-7) scores in the United States.MethodsWe recruited participants for an online survey through advertisements on various platforms such as Google, Facebook, and Reddit. A total of 406 adult US participants with moderate to severe (≥10) GAD-7 scores met the inclusion criteria and completed the survey. Anxiety levels measured using the GAD-7 scale formed our primary outcome. Our key independent variables were average daily time spent online and average daily time spent online searching about COVID-19 within the past 14 days. We used as controls potential confounders of the relation between our key independent variables and GAD-7 scores, namely, sleep quality, the COVID-19 Fear Inventory scale, binge drinking, substance use, prescription drug abuse, and sociodemographic attributes.ResultsLinear multivariate regression analyses showed that GAD-7 scores were higher among those who spent >4 hours online (per day) searching for information about COVID-19 (coefficient 1.29, P=.002), controlling for all other covariates. The total time spent online was not statistically associated with GAD-7 scores.ConclusionsResults from this study indicate that limiting pandemic-related online information seeking may aid anxiety management in our study population.©Parvati Singh, William G Cumberland, Dominic Ugarte, Tim-Allen Bruckner, Sean D Young. Originally published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research (http://www.jmir.org), 10.09.2020.

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