Estudio del grado de aprensión social en usuarios de atención primaria: Su relación con la ansiedad y la conducta de enfermedad

Objetive. To analyse the level of social apprehension in people who use primary care centres and its relationship with their level of anxiety and illness behaviour. Design. Descriptive, observational, and cross-sectional study. Setting. The study was carried out at 3 primary care centres: CAP Sant Miquel, CAP Bellavista, and CAP Vallès Oriental. Participants. 330 subjects aged between 18 and 75 years old who used their primary care Centre and participated voluntarily in the study. Main measurements. A sociodemographic data questionnaire and the following measurements were used: the Social Apprehension Scale (SAS), the State/Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI), and the Illness Behaviour Questionnaire (IBQ). Results. 31.8% of the subjects showed high levels of social apprehension and 44.5% revealed moderate scores. Statistically meaningful relation was observed between the levels of social apprehension and the levels of trait anxiety (P=.002), state anxiety (P=008), hypochondriasis (P=000), affective disturbance (P=.037), disease conviction (P=.001), interpersonal discord (P=001), and difficulties in social relations (P=.042). Conclusions. A high percentage of primary care users show high/moderate levels of social apprehension that are directly linked to anxiety and inversely linked to the concept of abnormal illness behaviour related to hypochondriasis and other fears of suffering from health disorders.