Health anxiety in autistic adults
John Galvin, Gareth Richards
Abstract
Health anxiety involves misinterpreting normal bodily sensations as symptoms of a serious illness. No study to date has explored health anxiety in autistic adults. This cross-sectional study had three aims: 1) to examine the levels of health anxiety in autistic and non-autistic adults, 2) to explore sex differences in health anxiety across both subsamples, and 3) to determine whether autistic traits were associated with health anxiety in either or both subsamples. A cross-sectional self-report questionnaire measuring demographic information (sex, age, ethnicity), diagnostic information, comorbid diagnoses, autistic traits, and health anxiety was distributed to 110 autistic and 110 non-autistic adults without intellectual disability. The findings showed health anxiety to be significantly higher in autistic than non-autistic adults, and significantly higher in females than males in both subsamples. Almost 1 in 3 autistic people reported clinically significant levels of health anxiety. Positive correlations were found between autistic traits and health anxiety in both autistic and non-autistic subsamples, and these relationships remained statistically significantly after controlling for covariates. This is the first study to investigate health anxiety in a sample of autistic people, and also the first to consider the relationship between autistic traits and health anxiety in both autistic and non-autistic individuals. The findings have both clinical and research implications.