Introduction:

Health anxiety is a psychological state characterized by certain types of beliefs, emotions, and attitudes toward the possibility of contracting a disease. Health anxiety has been considered a mediator of the psychological response to the pandemic generated by COVID-19.

Objectives:

To determine the level of health anxiety in a sample of Colombian university students, discriminating and comparing according to certain sociodemographic variables, and to describe the main during social confinement between August and November 2020.

Methodology:

A quantitative, non-experimental, descriptive, cross-sectional study was conducted in a sample of 1004 undergraduate students from three higher education institutions in the city of Medellin. The Short Health Anxiety Inventory - SHAI was used.

Results:

The mean value for health anxiety was above the value reported by other studies. High percentages of health concern (39.64 %), awareness of discomfort/pain (63.3 %), fear of having a serious illness (20.01 %), interest in bodily sensations or changes (68.92 %), risk of having a serious illness (30.33 %) and consequences on life (35.75 %) were found. No statistically significant differences were found in any of the comparisons between groups.

Conclusions:

Health concerns and anxiety during with epidemics/pandemics can have a significant psychological impact, as well as being related to ineffective preventive behavior and having adverse long-term consequences.

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