This study is a descriptive and cross-sectional study conducted at the Tazelenme University of Antalya Campus between November and December 2024. 60+ Tazelenme University is a third-age university established as a social responsibility project that has been providing 4 years of free education since 2016 with the principle of lifelong learning for individuals aged ≥60 years.

The research population comprised 643 Tazelenme University students enrolled in the program conducted within the scope of Akdeniz University Center for Applied Research on Aging Studies (1st grade: n=215, 33.4%; 2nd grade: n=184, 28.6%; 3rd grade: n=124, 19.3%; and 4th grade: n=120, 18.7% students) [12]. The sample size was calculated using the “Sample Size for % Frequency in a Population” module in the OpenEpi program [13] for a cross-sectional study. The population size was taken as 643, the expected frequency or proportion was determined as 50% because no prior estimate was available, the confidence level was set at 99%, the absolute margin of error was set at 5%, and the design effect was set at 1.0 under the assumption of simple random sampling. Under these assumptions, the minimum sample size required was calculated as 327. Inclusion criteria for the research were being aged ≥60 years, being a Tazelenme University student, and volunteering to participate in the research. Noninclusion criteria for the study included being aged <60 years, not being officially enrolled in the specified university campus, and not having internet access or a valid email address, as an online survey platform was used for data collection. Exclusion criteria included surveys containing incomplete or inaccurate data and withdrawal of consent at any point during the survey process.

Data were collected using a “Personal Information Form,” “Cyberchondria Severity Scale Short Form (CSS-12)” [14], Individual Health Perception Scale (IHPS) [15,16], and the Psychological Well-Being Scale for the Older People (PWBS-OP) [17].

The data were collected between November and December 2024 using an online survey form created with Google Forms. The survey form was sent to the students’ email addresses. The survey took approximately 15 minutes to complete. The research surveys were conducted in a single session.

This study was conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki. The study was approved by the Akdeniz University Medical Scientific Research Ethics Committee (TBAEK-511, dated July 25, 2024). The necessary legal permissions were obtained from the Directorate of the Center for Applied Research on Aging to conduct the research. In addition, informed consent was obtained from all participants who volunteered to participate in this study.

The study data were analyzed using SPSS 25.0 for Windows (SPSS Inc). For descriptive findings, categorical variables were presented as numbers and percentages, while continuous variables were presented as mean (SD) and minimum to maximum values. The Kolmogorov-Smirnov normality test was used to determine whether the data showed a normal distribution. It was determined that the data, except for the CSS-12 total score, did not conform to normal distribution. In the analysis of nonparametric data, the Mann-Whitney U test, Kruskal-Wallis test, and Spearman correlation were used. For variables where the difference was significant, pairwise comparisons between groups were evaluated using the post hoc Dunn test (with Bonferroni correction). Pearson correlation analysis was used in the analysis of parametric data. Factors playing a role in predicting participants’ health perception and psychological well-being levels were evaluated using multiple linear regression analysis. Variables found to be statistically significant in the pairwise comparison were included in the regression model. Categorical variables were included in the regression analysis by defining one dummy variable (coded as 0‐1) representing the number of categories in the variable. Multiple linear regression models were created using the forward selection method. The normality of the residuals obtained from the final regression model was checked using the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test. All the findings were tested at a significance level of 0.05.

The mean age of the 352 participants was 67.4 (SD 4.7, range 60-87) years. Of the 352 participants, 136 (38.6%) were first-year students, 245 (69.6%) were men, 207 (58.8%) were married, and 172 (48.9%) were university graduates or above (Table 1). No statistically significant difference was found between the daily internet usage times of the 4 classes (P=.10).

In terms of health status, 229 (65.1%) participants reported living with at least one chronic disease, and 199 (56.5%) spent between 1 and 2 hours on the internet daily. Participants demonstrated a high level of engagement with online health information; 167 (47.4%) participants reported searching the internet before starting a treatment recommended by their physician. While 247 (70.2%) participants were unsure about the reliability of online health resources, official health care organization websites (n=189, 52.8%) and social networks (n=133, 37.8%) were the most preferred sources for health searches. Notably, a small but significant minority (n=15, 4.3%) reported discontinuing medical treatments based on information found online (Table 2).

Descriptive statistics for the assessment tools revealed a mean CSS-12 total score of 28.50 (SD 6.96), indicating the sample’s general level of cyberchondria. The mean scores for health perception (IHPS) and psychological well-being (PWBS-OP) were 53.74 (SD 6.53) and 58.82 (SD 8.41), respectively. Within the subdimensions of the CSS-12, “excessiveness” (mean 8.31, SD 2.72) and “reassurance seeking” (mean 7.57, SD 2.45) were observed to have the highest mean values (Table 3).

Comparative analyses indicated that health perception levels were significantly higher among male participants (P=.02) and those with a high school education or above (P=.047; Table 4). Conversely, psychological well-being was found to be lower in participants who were married (P=.002), those with lower income levels (P<.001), and those who reported thinking they might have an undiagnosed illness (P<.001). The psychological well-being level of older people living with their spouse and children was found to be lower than that of those living alone (P=.02; Table 4). The analysis demonstrated no statistically significant differences in IHPS and PWBS-OP total scores across classes, smoking, and presence of health insurance, all failing to reach the formal significance threshold (P>.05).

According to the pairwise comparisons in the Dunn test with Bonferroni correction displayed, PWBS-OP total scores differed significantly only between married participants (mean rank 162.70, SD 100.96) and widowed or single participants (mean rank 210.20, SD 101.10; adjusted P=.002). No statistically significant differences were observed between married and divorced participants (adjusted P=.56) or between divorced and widowed or single participants (adjusted P=.26). Individuals who are widowed or single tend to have higher total PWBS-OP scores. The statistically significant variance in health perception based on education level identified in the overall Kruskal-Wallis analysis (P=.047) was not robust enough to be sustained during pairwise comparisons after applying the Dunn test with Bonferroni correction designed to mitigate type I error. Nonetheless, an examination of the mean ranks indicates that older adults with a primary or middle school education level tended to exhibit lower health perception compared to those with high school (adjusted P=.06) and university (adjusted P=.06) degrees. Pairwise comparisons in the Dunn test with Bonferroni correction were performed to investigate the specific differences in PWBS-OP total scores across perceived economic status groups. The post hoc analysis revealed that participants who perceived their income as “greater than expenses” (mean rank 232.97, SD 86.05) exhibited statistically significant and substantially higher PWBS-OP total scores compared to both the “income equal to expenses” group (mean rank 170.95, SD 100.08; test statistic=−62.019; P<.001) and the “income less than expenses” group (mean rank 147.07, SD 101.72; test statistic=−85.892; P<.001). Conversely, the difference in PWBS-OP total scores between the “income equal to expenses” and “income less than expenses” groups was not statistically significant after applying the Dunn test with Bonferroni correction (test statistic=−23.873; P=.24). Following the significant overall Kruskal-Wallis test (P=.02), pairwise comparisons in the Dunn test with Bonferroni correction were performed to identify the source of variation across living arrangement groups. The post hoc analysis confirmed that participants living alone (mean rank 197.04, SD 98.23) exhibited statistically significant higher PWBS-OP total scores compared to those living with their spouse and children (mean rank 143.92, SD 97.82; test statistic=53.122; adjusted P=.009).

Participants without chronic illnesses had significantly higher levels of perceived health (P=.001). PWBS-OP total score of those with chronic disease was determined to be lower than that of those that of without chronic disease (P=.008). The IHPS score average of older people who do not think they have an undiagnosed disease is higher than that of those who have such thoughts (P=.02). PWBS-OP total score of those who never went to a physician examination in the past year was found to be higher than that of those who did (P<.001). In the Dunn test with Bonferroni correction, older individuals who had not had a physician’s examination in the past year were found to have higher PWBS-OP total scores than other groups. The Dunn test with Bonferroni correction revealed statistically significant differences between those who visited a physician 1 to 3 times and those who visited 7 to 9 times (P=.01), between those who visited 7 to 9 times and those who did not visit at all (P=.001), between those who visited 10 times and those who did not visit at all (P=.02), and between those who did not visit at all and those who visited 4 to 6 times (P=.03). PWBS-OP total score of those who had medical tests done without a physician’s recommendation in the past year was determined to be higher than those who did not have tests done (P=.002). PWBS-OP total score of those who do not think they have an undiagnosed disease was found to be higher than those who have such thoughts (P<.001). PWBS-OP total score of those who stated that they “always” research health-related topics on the internet was found to be higher than the groups giving other answers (P=.02). The Dunn test with Bonferroni correction showed that those who always search for health information online had the highest total PWBS-OP score compared to other groups. In pairwise comparisons, statistically significant differences were found between those who frequently search for health information online and those who always do so (P=.08) and between those who always do so and those who sometimes do so (P=.03; Table 5). The analysis demonstrated no statistically significant differences in IHPS and PWBS-OP total scores across daily internet use duration, internet-based self-diagnosis and self-medication in the past year, internet research before starting prescribed treatment, internet-driven treatment discontinuation, and perceived reliability of online health resources, all failing to reach the formal significance threshold (P>.05).

To delineate specific differences across physician visit frequency groups following the general Kruskal-Wallis analysis, pairwise comparisons with Bonferroni correction were conducted. Significant variations were observed among groups. Specifically, participants reporting no physician visits (mean rank 234.71, SD 100.06) exhibited significantly higher PWBS-OP scores compared to those visiting 7 to 9 times (mean rank 123.33, SD 92.66; test statistic=111.381; adjusted P=.001), 10 or more times (mean rank 153.40, SD 108.34; test statistic=81.306; adjusted P=.02), and 4 to 6 times (mean rank 165.12, SD 95.99; test statistic=69.588; adjusted P=.03). Furthermore, participants with 1 to 3 visits (mean rank 190.08, SD 99.74) also demonstrated significantly higher scores than those with 7 to 9 visits (mean rank 123.33, SD 92.66; test statistic=66.757; adjusted P=.01). No statistically significant differences were found between the “none” and “1 to 3 times” groups (adjusted P=.45) or among the groups with 4 or more visits. Participants reporting that they “always” search for health-related topics on the internet (mean rank 229.71, SD 87.80) exhibited significantly higher PWBS-OP scores compared to those searching “frequently” (mean rank 154.14, SD 101.58; test statistic=75.568; adjusted P=.008) and “sometimes” (mean rank 171.25, SD 99.94; test statistic=58.459; adjusted P=.03). No statistically significant differences were found among other pairwise comparisons after applying the stringent Bonferroni correction, notably between the “always” group and the “never” (adjusted P>.99) or “rarely” (adjusted P=.20) groups.

In the research, a negative and low-level significant correlation was found between the CSS-12 compulsion subscale and the COM subscale score of IHPS and between participants’ age and the SAW subscale score of IHPS (P<.001 and P<.05, respectively). A negative and low-level significant correlation was found between CSS-12-distress, CSS-12-compulsion, and CSS-12-total score and the CER subscale score of IHPS (P<.001). A positive and low-level significant correlation was found between CSS-12-reassurance and CSS-12-total Score and the IOH subscale score of IHPS (P<.05). A positive and low-level significant correlation was found between participants’ age and IHPS total score and PWBS-OP total score (P<.05). A negative and low-level significant correlation was found between CSS-12-distress, CSS-12-compulsion, and CSS-12-total score and IHPS total score and PWBS-OP total score (P<.05; Table S1 in Multimedia Appendix 1).

According to the multiple linear regression analysis, the presence of chronic disease was the only significant positive predictor of higher health perception levels (B=2.16, 95% CI 1.721-3.593; P=.003), whereas factors such as age, gender, education level, and CSS-12 total scores did not demonstrate a statistically significant impact (P>.05). Psychological well-being (PWBS-OP) was significantly and positively predicted by age (B=0.22, 95% CI 0.037-0.399; P=.02), marital status (B=1.67, 95% CI 1.064-2.716; P=.002), economic status (B=2.10, 95% CI 1.729-3.464; P=.003), and the thought of having an undiagnosed disease (B=3.38, 95% CI 1.038-5.830; P=.007), whereas it was significantly and negatively predicted by medical examinations in the past year (B=−1.29, 95% CI −2.093 to 0.485; P=.002), undergoing examinations without a physician’s recommendation (B=−2.04, 95% CI −3.794 to −0.290; P=.02), searching for health-related topics on the internet (B=−1.26, 95% CI −2.152 to −0.360; P=.006), and CSS-12 total scores (B=−0.13, 95% CI −0.261 to −0.060; P=.04; Table S2 in Multimedia Appendix 1).

In this study, increased levels of cyberchondria were found to be associated with significant decreases in both health perception and psychological well-being. The findings demonstrated that age, marital status, economic status, and the absence of undiagnosed illness had significant positive effects on psychological well-being. Particularly, the absence of undiagnosed illness positively influenced the psychological well-being of highly educated older adults engaged in lifelong learning.

Interestingly, this study observed slight but significant increases in health perception and psychological well-being as age advanced. This phenomenon has been explained in the literature by factors such as increased life experience, acceptance, and meaning-seeking among older individuals [19]. However, this finding is not consistent across all studies. For instance, Vuorre and Przybylski [20] reported in their analysis across 168 countries that the association between internet and mobile technology use and well-being did not differ significantly by age and was generally minimal. This situation may vary according to cultural factors, individual coping styles, and levels of digital awareness among highly educated older adults engaged in lifelong learning.

The significantly lower psychological well-being levels found among women compared to men are also noteworthy. Chen et al [21] indicated that older women are psychologically more vulnerable due to higher loneliness, lack of social support, and caregiving responsibilities. Similarly, Li et al [22] revealed that women developed higher anxiety when facing uncertainty in the pandemic context. Older women often serve as primary “health managers” or informal caregivers within family networks. When navigating digital health ecosystems, familial responsibility can manifest as a heavy psychological burden. Unlike men, older women tend to be more meticulous and overly cautious in online symptom checking, driven by a sense of duty to protect both their own well-being and the well-being of those they are responsible for. As web-based health resources generate highly ambiguous medical information, this extensive data searching behavior without formal clinical filtering triggers a cycle of cognitive fatigue and cyberchondria. Consequently, the low psychological well-being in older women may not only be a reflection of structural vulnerability but also a direct result of the overly cautious, digitally driven overanalyzing loop that disproportionately affects highly educated older women engaged in lifelong learning.

The negative relationship observed between worsening economic conditions and psychological well-being reveals that financial security serves as a fundamental buffering mechanism for mental health in older adults [23]. Economic vulnerability not only increases individual stress levels but also damages well-being by limiting social participation and sense of belonging [6]. For highly educated older adults engaged in lifelong learning, quality of life is not just about food and shelter; it is about attending courses, buying books, and participating in intellectual communities. The economic crisis directly undermines this lifestyle and identity. What they are experiencing is not just economic stress, but an identity disruption. The person wants to be educated, knowledgeable, and intellectually active, but their budget does not allow it. This gap (higher education vs lower economic status) creates deep psychological unease in their personality. As educated individuals can read macroeconomic trends, inflation curves, and the future more rationally, they are more susceptible to a wave of anticipatory anxiety about the future.

In individuals with thoughts of undiagnosed illness, lower levels of health perception and psychological well-being were identified. This finding demonstrates that difficulty coping with uncertainty and diagnostic ambiguity can trigger cyberchondria behaviors and anxiety [22,24]. Highly educated older adults engaged in lifelong learning have solved lifelong problems by “reading and researching.” When faced with an undiagnosed symptom, they exhibit the same reflex and turn to the internet. Highly educated older adults without medical training, however, become overwhelmed by the manipulative information pool on the internet. Owing to their high digital literacy, they conduct far deeper searches than the average user. This, instead of reducing uncertainty, leads to cognitive overload. The greatest bulwark of psychological well-being in old age is “autonomy” and “cognitive control.” Consequently, within this specific cohort, the erosion of psychological well-being is not merely a consequence of fearing a physical illness but rather a reflection of a deeper existential crisis: the collapse of their cognitive autonomy and self-efficacy, which are fundamental pillars of successful aging when confronted with an unresolvable digital information maze.

This study found that more frequent physician visits in the past year, undergoing medical tests without physician recommendation in the past year, internet-based health research behavior, and cyberchondria behavior were significantly and negatively associated with the psychological well-being levels of highly educated older adults engaged in lifelong learning. The literature also indicates that excessive and inappropriate searching for health information online was associated with an increased likelihood of health anxiety and decreased psychological well-being in individuals [25]. Particularly in highly educated older adults engaged in lifelong learning, despite increased access to technological information, health anxiety and stress symptoms are associated with cyberchondria [3,7].

Intensive and complex health information online, especially in older adults with high health anxiety, is associated with an increased likelihood of worry and fear, which may be linked to impaired psychological well-being. Additionally, using information obtained from the internet without seeking expert opinion can negatively associate with health perception by causing misdiagnosis and unnecessary tests. As web-based health information is inherently ambiguous and probabilistic, this intensive data consumption without formal clinical filtration intensifies latent health anxiety rather than mitigating it [9]. The unique pathway-based insight offered by this study is that this digitally driven anxiety directly translates into concrete, uncoordinated medical overconsumption. To resolve the cognitive dissonance generated by alarmist online information, these highly educated older adults engaged in lifelong learning bypass professional triage, leading to frequent physician visitations and self-directed, unrecommended diagnostic testing. Every ambiguous test result or clinical nuance, in turn, sparks further online cross-referencing, reinforcing the cyberchondria cycle and severely deteriorating both their psychological well-being and their trust in health care systems [26]. Consequently, our findings emphasize that in highly educated older cohorts, technology use is a double-edged sword; high digital literacy, when uncoupled from the ability to filter out cyberchondria-inducing medical noise, transforms a cognitive asset into a profound source of psychological and systemic vulnerability.

The impact of CSS-12’s “distress” and “compulsion” subdimensions reveals a distinct process-oriented vulnerability in highly educated older adults. While cyberchondria is widely conceptualized as a compulsive, anxiety-driven pattern [24,27], in this specific cohort, it transforms an ingrained problem-solving orientation into a maladaptive loop. Driven to resolve somatic uncertainty, these digitally literate individuals engage in exhaustive online cross-referencing. However, because they possess the cognitive capacity to analyze complex data but lack formal clinical frameworks to filter it, this ambiguous web-based information precipitates severe cognitive overload. Ultimately, this pathway constitutes an active cognitive trap where an older individual’s intellectual resources and drive for autonomy paradoxically undermine their mental resilience, thereby eroding subjective well-being.

The finding that 65% (n=229) of participants managed chronic conditions and underwent multiple examinations highlights a unique process-oriented mechanism within highly educated older adults engaged in lifelong learning. While clinical status traditionally shapes subjective health perception [21,28], a chronic diagnosis in this demographic threatens cognitive autonomy, driving individuals to deploy their digital literacy for intensive online research. However, navigating inherently ambiguous web-based health data creates an overanalysis trap that triggers a compulsive cascade of medical cross-checking and heightened anxiety. This pathway-based dynamic explains why the complete absence of chronic disease history emerged as the strongest positive predictor of health perception. Spared from the somatic triggers that launch them into the exhausting digital maze, these highly educated older adults engaged in lifelong learning avoid cyberchondria-induced cognitive overload, allowing their intellectual resources to function as stable psychological assets rather than anxiety amplifiers.

Particularly in older adults with multiple chronic diseases, deterioration in both physical and psychological functioning is common. Ryff developed the “Psychological Well-being” model, which divides well-being into 6 distinct dimensions: self-acceptance, positive relationships with others, autonomy, environmental mastery, finding purpose and meaning in life, and personal growth [29]. When psychological well-being is evaluated according to the subdimensions of Ryff’s model, cyberchondria behavior can be considered to have negative effects on autonomy and environmental mastery dimensions.

The findings that nearly half (n=167, 47.4%) of the participants engaged in preconsultation internet research and a critical minority (n=15, 4.3%) discontinued medical treatment based on online information expose the behavioral realities of digital health tracking in highly educated older adults engaged in lifelong learning [30]. Evaluating these findings through a process-oriented framework reveals how an older, highly educated demographic’s pursuit of medical autonomy can paradoxically manifest as clinical nonadherence. For these intellectually engaged individuals, researching symptoms prior to a physician visit is an active effort to maintain agency over age-related somatic changes. However, when highly educated individuals cross-reference complex, unverified web data with professional clinical advice, it often generates profound cognitive dissonance. When this dissonance is left unresolved, the pathway-based trajectory shifts from proactive self-care to dangerous behavioral autonomy, driving individuals to independently terminate prescribed treatments. This maladaptive pattern clarifies why an increased frequency of digital health seeking correlates negatively with psychological well-being, as unguided online searches systematically deteriorate uncertainty-coping mechanisms and amplify somatic threat perceptions [6,31]. Furthermore, this distinct nuance reconciles the apparent contradiction with macro-level data, such as Vuorre and Przybylski’s [20] finding that general broadband adoption does not consistently undermine global well-being. The critical insight here is that while general digital connectivity remains benign on a macro scale [20], a targeted, pathway-based exploration reveals that anxiety-driven medical overanalysis by highly educated older adults engaged in lifelong learning presents a direct, acute threat to their psychological resilience and subjective well-being.

Evaluating technology-induced well-being through a population-specific lens reveals a critical process-oriented nuance in our highly educated older cohort: the positive link between cyberchondria’s “reassurance seeking” and health importance reflects an intellectual drive for autonomy rather than pure pathology. This intersection highlights a vital pathway-based pivot; while unguided searches induce anxiety, structured information gathering enhances health self-efficacy [32], converting anxious drives into proactive self-care agency. This adaptive trajectory is mirrored by the participants’ sophisticated information seeking hierarchy, which uniquely included academic literature. However, as established by Cao and Chu [33], the perceived credibility of these mixed-reliability platforms fundamentally dictates subsequent psychological well-being. The resulting cognitive friction between official medical narratives and informal digital commentary ultimately determines whether this information pathway reinforces psychological resilience or precipitates cyberchondria.

This study determined that cyberchondria behavior in highly educated older adults engaged in lifelong learning was associated with an increased likelihood of deterioration in mental and physical health conditions and was negatively associated with psychological well-being. Schuster et al [3] similarly reported that older adults with high health anxiety experienced more stress when researching health information online. Additionally, encountering unreliable information sources provides grounds for older adults to discontinue treatment or self-diagnose [3,30,34]. Thus, for highly educated older adults engaged in lifelong learning, unguided digital health seeking serves as a critical vulnerability that undermines both subjective resilience and objective health safety.

The findings regarding participants’ daily internet usage duration and source preferences in this study underscore the critical importance of enhancing digital health literacy among highly educated older adults engaged in lifelong learning. Recent evidence from Xu and Starcevic [7] highlights that in the modern digital era, health seeking behavior in older adults is intricately linked to mental well-being and health-related quality of life. Improving digital health literacy is now recognized as a vital protective mechanism that shields older individuals from the adverse effects of misinformation while empowering them to make informed and accurate health decisions. Therefore, initiatives aimed at reducing cyberchondria risk must prioritize the development of advanced digital literacy to align with the contemporary technological landscape.

It is emphasized that exposure to health information available online can create difficulties in accessing accurate information and cognitive fatigue, particularly in highly educated older adults engaged in lifelong learning, and therefore, cyberchondria can have negative effects on psychological well-being. Recent research underscores that this cognitive strain fuels cyberchondria, which in turn serves as a significant predictor of decline in various dimensions of Ryff’s psychological well-being model [29], including psychological growth and psychosocial stability [7]. As highly educated older adults engaged in lifelong learning struggle to reconcile conflicting online reports, their “self-acceptance” regarding their health status and “autonomy” in health-related decision-making are compromised, as they become increasingly fused with anxiety-inducing information. Ultimately, this deterioration in eudaimonic well-being dimensions significantly reduces the overall quality of life in this population.

This study has several limitations. First, as the research has a cross-sectional design, establishing causal relationships between variables is limited. Second, the use of an online data collection method, while a methodological convenience that facilitated a larger sample size within the university network, inherently introduces concerns regarding data reliability and selection bias. As our sample consists of highly educated older adults engaged in lifelong learning who are already active internet users, individuals with lower digital access or literacy are not represented in the data. This limits the generalizability of our findings to the broader older population in Turkey. The majority of participants being men (approximately 70%) and having high education levels makes it difficult to generalize the findings to the general older population. Furthermore, the possibility that health care service utilization may have changed following the COVID-19 pandemic was not considered.

The most important strength of the research is addressing the relationship between cyberchondria behavior and psychological well-being in the older population. Thus, digital health seeking behavior and psychological effects in highly educated older adults engaged in lifelong learning, which have not been sufficiently examined in the literature, were determined. By using validated tools such as the CSS-12, this study provides a foundational understanding of digital health seeking behaviors and their psychological impacts on an increasingly tech-savvy older population.

In conclusion, high levels of cyberchondria behavior in highly educated older adults engaged in lifelong learning negatively associate with psychological well-being levels. Furthermore, while sociodemographic factors may have positive effects on health perception, excessive and uncontrolled internet-based health information seeking can negatively impact the psychological well-being of highly educated older adults engaged in lifelong learning. Accordingly, to reduce the information confusion and misguidance that highly educated older adults engaged in lifelong learning encounter when seeking health information online, it is recommended to expand reliable digital health literacy education, increase internet-based health counseling services by health care professionals, and develop psychological support and awareness programs targeting cyberchondria risk. Additionally, conducting longitudinal research, including older adults from different socioeconomic and cultural levels in future studies, will provide stronger evidence regarding the association between cyberchondria and psychological well-being.