On the relation between interoceptive attention and health anxiety: Distinguishing adaptive and maladaptive bodily awareness

Abstract

The objectives of this study were to (1) demonstrate differences in the most common measures of interoceptive attention based on correlations with theoretically relevant emotional constructs, and (2) explore the interoceptive mechanisms contributing to health anxiety. Participants were 327 adults from the general population who completed a series of questionnaires on an online survey tool called Qualtrics. Associations among variables were ana-lyzed using simple correlations and a hierarchical multiple regression. The two most common measures of interoceptive attention were statistically unrelated to each other and had opposite patterns of relationships with measures of worry, health anxiety, and alexithymia. Results from a regression analysis suggest that an interoceptive profile of “high interoceptive attention” and “low interoceptive accuracy” is most predictive of health anxiety. Results suggest that there are “adaptive” and “maladaptive” forms of interoceptive attention that are captured by different measures of interoceptive attention. Researchers should choose measures of interoceptive attention carefully based on their own unique research needs. Findings about the interoceptive correlates of health anxiety may have implications for treatment of illness anxiety disorder.