Modern health worries don't necessarily lead to healthier behaviours

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2023-06-16 11:44

New Zealand; International

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Even when you're worried about your health, you may not make healthy choices. Researchers found that having high levels of modern health worries or being affected by environmental annoyances (for instance chemical agents, noise, and electromagnetic exposure) was not linked to having a healthier life style. People with modern health worries may be focused on alleviating their symptoms rather than looking long-term, and they may also overemphasise the risk factors of the things worrying them and underestimate the risk of other factors which may have a greater effect on their health, such as smoking, alcohol consumption and exercise.

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Research Elsevier, Web page

Journal/
conference: Journal of Psychosomatic Research

Research:Paper

Organisation/s: University of Auckland, Károli Gáspár University of the Reformed Church in Hungary, Hungary, Department of Psychology, Umeå University, Umeå, Sweden

Funder: This work was supported by AFA Insurance (190082) (for S.N.) and by the Research Fund of the Hungarian National Research, Development and Innovation Office (K 137724) (for F.K.).

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