Background: Evidence 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. Objective: In this study, we examine the association between online activity and Generalized Anxiety Disorder 7 (GAD-7) scores in the United States. Methods: We 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. Results: Linear 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. Conclusions: Results from this study indicate that limiting pandemic-related online information seeking may aid anxiety management in our study population.

This is the abstract only. Read the full article on the JMIR site. JMIR is the leading open access journal for eHealth and healthcare in the Internet age.

中文翻译：

---

COVID-19大流行期间美国成年人的广泛性焦虑障碍评分与在线活动之间的关联：跨部门分析。

背景：过去流行病的证据表明，大规模公共卫生危机期间的恐惧，不确定性和失控可能导致对流行病相关信息的寻求增加，尤其是在那些易患高焦虑症的人群中。在此类人群中，与COVID-19大流行有关的信息的大量消费可能会增加焦虑感。目的：在这项研究中，我们研究了在线活动与美国广泛性焦虑症7（GAD-7）评分之间的关​​系。方法：我们通过在各种平台（例如Google，Facebook和Reddit）上的广告招募参与者进行在线调查。共有406名GAD-7分数达到中度至严重（≥10）的成年美国参与者符合入选标准并完成了调查。使用GAD-7量表测量的焦虑水平是我们的主要结局。我们的关键自变量是过去14天内在网上搜索COVID-19的平均每日时间和在网上搜索的平均每日时间。我们将关键独立变量与GAD-7得分之间的关​​系用作对照的潜在混杂因素，即睡眠质量，COVID-19恐惧库存量表，暴饮暴食，药物滥用，处方药滥用和社会人口统计学属性。结果：线性多元回归分析显示，在网上花费超过4小时（每天）搜索有关COVID-19的信息（系数1.29，P = .002）的人中，GAD-7得分较高，并控制了所有其他协变量。在线上花费的总时间与GAD-7得分在统计上不相关。结论：

这仅仅是抽象的。阅读JMIR网站上的全文。JMIR是互联网时代电子健康和医疗保健领域领先的开放获取期刊。