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Assessment of the Frequency of Online Searches for Symptoms Before Diagnosis: Analysis of Archival Data

BACKGROUND: Surveys suggest that a large proportion of people use the internet to search for information on medical symptoms they experience and that around one-third of the people in the United States self-diagnose using online information. However, surveys are known to be biased, and the true rate...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Hochberg, Irit, Allon, Raviv, Yom-Tov, Elad
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: JMIR Publications 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7084283/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32141835
http://dx.doi.org/10.2196/15065
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author Hochberg, Irit
Allon, Raviv
Yom-Tov, Elad
author_facet Hochberg, Irit
Allon, Raviv
Yom-Tov, Elad
author_sort Hochberg, Irit
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Surveys suggest that a large proportion of people use the internet to search for information on medical symptoms they experience and that around one-third of the people in the United States self-diagnose using online information. However, surveys are known to be biased, and the true rates at which people search for information on their medical symptoms before receiving a formal medical diagnosis are unknown. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to estimate the rate at which people search for information on their medical symptoms before receiving a formal medical diagnosis by a health professional. METHODS: We collected queries made on a general-purpose internet search engine by people in the United States who self-identified their diagnosis from 1 of 20 medical conditions. We focused on conditions that have evident symptoms and are neither screened systematically nor a part of usual medical care. Thus, they are generally diagnosed after the investigation of specific symptoms. We evaluated how many of these people queried for symptoms associated with their medical condition before their formal diagnosis. In addition, we used a survey questionnaire to assess the familiarity of laypeople with the symptoms associated with these conditions. RESULTS: On average, 15.49% (1792/12,367, SD 8.4%) of people queried about symptoms associated with their medical condition before receiving a medical diagnosis. A longer duration between the first query for a symptom and the corresponding diagnosis was correlated with an increased likelihood of people querying about those symptoms (rho=0.6; P=.005); similarly, unfamiliarity with the association between a condition and its symptom was correlated with an increased likelihood of people querying about those symptoms (rho=−0.47; P=.08). In addition, worrying symptoms were 14% more likely to be queried about. CONCLUSIONS: Our results indicate that there is large variability in the percentage of people who query the internet for their symptoms before a formal medical diagnosis is made. This finding has important implications for systems that attempt to screen for medical conditions.
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spelling pubmed-70842832020-03-25 Assessment of the Frequency of Online Searches for Symptoms Before Diagnosis: Analysis of Archival Data Hochberg, Irit Allon, Raviv Yom-Tov, Elad J Med Internet Res Original Paper BACKGROUND: Surveys suggest that a large proportion of people use the internet to search for information on medical symptoms they experience and that around one-third of the people in the United States self-diagnose using online information. However, surveys are known to be biased, and the true rates at which people search for information on their medical symptoms before receiving a formal medical diagnosis are unknown. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to estimate the rate at which people search for information on their medical symptoms before receiving a formal medical diagnosis by a health professional. METHODS: We collected queries made on a general-purpose internet search engine by people in the United States who self-identified their diagnosis from 1 of 20 medical conditions. We focused on conditions that have evident symptoms and are neither screened systematically nor a part of usual medical care. Thus, they are generally diagnosed after the investigation of specific symptoms. We evaluated how many of these people queried for symptoms associated with their medical condition before their formal diagnosis. In addition, we used a survey questionnaire to assess the familiarity of laypeople with the symptoms associated with these conditions. RESULTS: On average, 15.49% (1792/12,367, SD 8.4%) of people queried about symptoms associated with their medical condition before receiving a medical diagnosis. A longer duration between the first query for a symptom and the corresponding diagnosis was correlated with an increased likelihood of people querying about those symptoms (rho=0.6; P=.005); similarly, unfamiliarity with the association between a condition and its symptom was correlated with an increased likelihood of people querying about those symptoms (rho=−0.47; P=.08). In addition, worrying symptoms were 14% more likely to be queried about. CONCLUSIONS: Our results indicate that there is large variability in the percentage of people who query the internet for their symptoms before a formal medical diagnosis is made. This finding has important implications for systems that attempt to screen for medical conditions. JMIR Publications 2020-03-06 /pmc/articles/PMC7084283/ /pubmed/32141835 http://dx.doi.org/10.2196/15065 Text en ©Irit Hochberg, Raviv Allon, Elad Yom-Tov. Originally published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research (http://www.jmir.org), 06.03.2020. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work, first published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research, is properly cited. The complete bibliographic information, a link to the original publication on http://www.jmir.org/, as well as this copyright and license information must be included.
spellingShingle Original Paper
Hochberg, Irit
Allon, Raviv
Yom-Tov, Elad
Assessment of the Frequency of Online Searches for Symptoms Before Diagnosis: Analysis of Archival Data
title Assessment of the Frequency of Online Searches for Symptoms Before Diagnosis: Analysis of Archival Data
title_full Assessment of the Frequency of Online Searches for Symptoms Before Diagnosis: Analysis of Archival Data
title_fullStr Assessment of the Frequency of Online Searches for Symptoms Before Diagnosis: Analysis of Archival Data
title_full_unstemmed Assessment of the Frequency of Online Searches for Symptoms Before Diagnosis: Analysis of Archival Data
title_short Assessment of the Frequency of Online Searches for Symptoms Before Diagnosis: Analysis of Archival Data
title_sort assessment of the frequency of online searches for symptoms before diagnosis: analysis of archival data
topic Original Paper
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7084283/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32141835
http://dx.doi.org/10.2196/15065
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