ROLE OF INTEROCEPTIVE AWARENESS AND SOMATIC SYMPTOMS IN PREDICTING GENERALIZED ANXIETY AMONG HYPERTENSIVE ADULTS

Abstract

Hypertension is often associated with anxiety and somatic complaints, but the role of interoceptive awareness was not established well. The purpose of current research was to determine if interoceptive awareness and the severity of somatic symptoms predict generalized anxiety symptoms among hypertensive adults. This cross-sectional design recruited 200 hypertensive adults who completed the Interoceptive Awareness Scale (MAIA-2), Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-15), and Generalized Anxiety Disorder scale (GAD-7). The data was not normal therefore Spearman’s correlation was used to examine the associations between interoceptive awareness, somatic symptom severity, and generalized anxiety. Regression analysis was used to determine the predictive capacity of interoceptive awareness and somatic symptoms on generalized anxiety. The analysis revealed a strong positive correlation between somatic symptom severity and generalized anxiety, rs(198)=.754, p<.001, but no significant correlation was found between interoceptive awareness and somatic symptoms, rs(198)=.014, p=.842, or generalized anxiety, rs(198)=.046, p=.516. The regression result revealed that interoceptive awareness and somatic symptoms predicted 71.3% of the variance in generalized anxiety, F(2, 197)=245.22, p<.001. Somatic symptom severity was a significant predictor of generalized anxiety symptoms, β=.84, p<.001, but interoceptive awareness was not a significant predictor of generalized anxiety symptoms, β=.03, p=.480. The results suggest that generalized anxiety symptoms among hypertensive adults are primarily driven by their physical symptoms rather than their general interoceptive awareness.