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COVID-19 Psychological Research Consortium (C19PRC) Panel Study (2020 - 2022) /
STUDY: COVID-19-Related Anxiety Predicts Somatic Symptoms in the UK Population
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Description: This study aimed to estimate the association between anxiety associated with COVID-19 and somatic symptoms, using data from a large, representative sample (N=2025) of the UK adult population. Results showed that moderate to high levels of anxiety associated with COVID-19 were significantly associated with general somatic symptoms, and in particular with gastrointestinal and fatigue symptoms. This pattern of associations remained significant after controlling for generalised anxiety disorder, pre-existing health problems, age, gender and income. This is the first evidence that anxiety associated with COVID-19 makes a unique contribution to somatisation, above and beyond the effect of generalised anxiety disorder.