Cognitive vulnerability factors of health anxiety: A systematic review

Health anxiety is feeling anxious about health and illnesses. Certain symptoms and biases, such as memory bias, attention bias, and preoccupation, have been identified within the cognitive-behavioral model and explored in numerous studies. To our knowledge, no systematic review has specifically examined the cognitive vulnerability factors and how they contribute to the onset and persistence of health anxiety, rather than the cognitive symptoms once health anxiety was developed. Therefore, the current study aimed to systematically review cognitive vulnerability factors of health anxiety. A literature search was conducted across Web of Science, Scopus, and PubMed, yielding 2823 records, of which 24 studies met the inclusion criteria (e.g. full-text, English-written, quantitative studies) after screening. Results showed that anxiety sensitivity and intolerance of uncertainty were the most reported cognitive variables associated with health anxiety. These transdiagnostic factors were considered as alternative targets of therapy because this approach was reported to be effective.