Ever googled a minor symptom only to come away convinced you had a serious disease?
You’re not alone. In a Microsoft Research study released this month, a quarter of respondents said they use the Internet as they would a medical expert, and more than 90% of those surveyed said medical Web searches had, at least once, led them to review content related to a serious illness.
Problem is, an experienced medical expert does a patient history first, then uses judgment and estimates the likelihood that a symptom—say, joint stiffness—is caused by exercise or injury versus, say, tetanus.
But a simple search often exaggerates the apparent risk of serious conditions, according to the Microsoft researchers. They analyzed the searches of hundreds of thousands of users and found that when symptoms such as headache, chest pain, and muscle twitches were input, the results were just as likely, or more likely, to call up serious but very rare diseases as they were to unearth benign reasons for the pain.
For instance, a search for “muscle twitches” had a 1 in 2 chance of bringing up the very rare but debilitating ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease), and only about a 1 in 8 probability of bringing up the much more likely cause, benign fasciculation. In reality, an individual’s chance of having ALS is 1 in 55,000.
Skewed statistics
Health sites—including Health.com—have tools to refine symptom searches, allowing multiple symptoms. But even those tools are not diagnostic, and they don’t rate the relative odds. The problem when users quickly come upon a serious medical condition during a search, says the study’s coauthor Eric Horvitz, MD, PhD, is that they tend to assume that very rare medical conditions are much more common than they really are—something called availability bias.
It’s availability bias that makes people worry more about their children being kidnapped than being in a car accident, more likely to fear death by flying than death by crossing the street. The information that is readily available to you—and that may come to mind when it’s frightening—may skew your judgment about risk.
Dr. Horvitz and his colleague Ryen White also looked at how searches changed once someone came across a disease like ALS. They found that, in some cases, people were spending 10%–15% of their subsequent search time investigating the disease, suggesting a growing anxiety.
While hypochondriasis, an actual diagnosis of being overly concerned about medical issues, affects only 5% of the population, Dr. Horvitz suspects that “more people than we know have health anxiety or can be put into that position by searching on the Web.”
Dr. Horvitz, an expert in artificial intelligence, recognizes the usefulness of Web health searches. He wants to see technology that is better able to factor in all the things a doctor would when making a diagnosis—age, health, history, etc.
“I believe we are seeing a slightly rough edge in a smooth and shiny resource,” he says. “By polishing that rough edge, we can make it a lot better.”
Here’s how to perform better health-related Web searches, analyze what you find, and manage health anxiety.
Next page: Four steps to staying calm
Comments (6)
I’ve noticed another health-related stressor on the internet–all the pages with updates on sick people. They can be very addictive (since it is a real life or death drama), but following too many, especially the pages of people you did not know until you were referred to their page by “your” patient, can be very distressing. I have enought emotional reserve to support one or two ill people in my community, but not enough to follow several people I never knew before.
The cost of health care may be a variable to be considered. The use of the web as a means of diagnosing a problem may be the most affordable means for many people. Dangerous!
Any medical condition should be looked at by a doctor. A annual physical should be done if possible.
The internet is a great tool, but its not an expert on the human body. Even the great Gregory House would have a problem with a person using the internet for medical advise. Thats my opinion.
Freebird out
Yes maybe, but remember House is a character on a tv show … so not a real guy with opinions re things like internet medical diagnosis.
Anyone else find it funny that right about the time healthcare costs rose dramatically, so did healthcare companies’ advertising budgets? I know more people who see a commercial on television and promptly go to their doctor whining for the med. Please. Get a grip, America. We are the most over-medicated country on the planet. Has it made us better or our children smarter? Clearly not, according to recent test numbers. Every kid that “acts out” even the slightest is diagnosed with some mental “disease” and put on a med because his parents have surely researched every “disorder” on the ‘net. Back in the day, most children who “acted out” became leaders.
People are trying whatever they can due to a failed health care system and poor quality care that they can’t afford. I’d go to a Dr. or hospital as a last resort.