Is online self-diagnosis possible?

The surveys (“The Internet and shopping decisions of Poles", “Health-dedicated websites") conducted by Polskie Badania Internetu (Polish Internet Research, PBI) show that the Internet is our first choice to look for information on health, disease symptoms, and treatment methods (84 percent). Physicians and health care professionals are the second most popular choice (51 percent).

For 43 percent of the surveyed, the Internet is the primary source of information on health problems.

Why? Because it is quick and convenient. However, specialists warn that there is a darker side – the Internet is starting to replace doctor’s appointments, which can be dangerous. More and more people are incorrectly self-diagnosed online, and what is worse, they use such diagnosis to buy medications and attempt self-treatment.

What are we looking for, what can we find?

Websites dedicated to health offer e.g. medications search engines, where the selection of the disease category and medicine name gives us access to information on the composition, dosage, effect, and similar products.

Pharmacy, medical establishment, and physician search engines are also popular.

Certain websites offer the possibility of online diagnosis. After selecting the symptoms from the list, we are provided with a list of ailments in which the given symptoms appear.

However, this may lead us astray. The data collected by the Whites Agency (http://agencjawhites.pl/doktor-google-infografika/) shows that when we enter e.g. headache into the search engine, one fourth of the results leads us to brain tumours. Meanwhile, in reality, this disease develops in one out of 50 thousand people.

As shown by PBI research, our most frequent searches are for disease symptoms (65 percent), information on drugs (41 percent), treatment and procedures (33 percent), as well as opinions on physicians and medical establishments (21 percent).

We often search the Internet to find contact with specialists (62 percent) and assistance in the interpretation of examination results (38 percent). When we look for information, we mostly use search engines (67 percent). Specialised websites (47 percent) and themed sites on large websites (42 percent) are less popular.

Cyberchondria, i.e. Internet hypochondria

The Internet provides us with easy access to symptoms of various diseases fitting our ailments. From here, there is only one step to cyberchondria, the Internet version of hypochondria.

The PBI studies show that as many as 37 percent of web surfers reacted to the found information by fearing for their health, 20 percent became convinced that they were sick, while 10 percent began to feel poorly.

“People who do not like uncertainty and seek diagnosis for themselves only wind themselves up. If such a person ends up on a website concerning brain trauma, there is a great possibility that he or she becomes concerned that e.g. their headaches are evidence of a brain tumour," warns the author of the research on cyberchondria, Dr Thomas Fergus of the Baylor University.

Doctor Google or a real physician?

Physicians warn that the search for the explanation of health problems can lead people to a great amount of medical information and do not consider the fact that some of them come from questionable sources.

Specialists recommend to take note if the information is signed by name; if we should end up on a website where the content is signed by e.g. the editing staff or there is no author at all, we should take caution.