Thoroughly modern worries - The relationship of worries about modernity toreported symptoms, health and medical care utilization

Objective: There is now greater public concern about how features of modern life pose threats to personal health. In two studies, we investigated the relationship between individuals' worries about modernity affecting health to symptom reports, perceptions of health and health care utilization. Meth ods: In the first study, 526 University students completed a questionnaire measuring modem health worries (MHW), symptom reports and health perception s. A second study utilized an existing national survey database of 7869 New Zealanders. Part of the survey examined people's concerns of modernity aff ecting their health in the past 12 months, as well as the use of convention al medical and alternative health care. Results: We found concerns about mo dernity affecting health were made up of four major components: environment al pollution, toxic interventions, tainted food and radiation. MHW were sig nificantly associated with somatic complaints and ratings of the importance of health to the individual. We also found individuals with high levels of MHW had a higher rate of food intolerance and chronic fatigue syndrome (CF s). In the second study, we found MHW to be associated with medical care ut ilization, particularly of alternative health practitioners. Conclusions: T he results of these studies suggest concerns about modernity do cause chang es in the way individuals interpret somatic information and may play a role in undermining perceptions of health. The area of MHW is worthy of study a nd may hold importance for understanding aspects of functional disorders. ( C) 2001 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved.