I recently won the award for Clumsiest Human Of 2019 when I tripped down a tiny dark staircase and fractured my foot.
How do I know it’s an avulsion fracture of the fifth metatarsal? Because I’ve spent the last two weeks Googling the hell out of every symptom – every niggle and every bruise – until my computer began flashing red and screaming ‘YOU’RE LITERALLY GOING TO DIE.’
Turns out seeking the professional advice of a doctor is always the way to go, and 9 times out of 10, you aren’t dying. So, why do humans turn to Dr. Google and websites like WebMD for all their healthcare queries instead of hitting up a real doc?
According to WebMB (ironic, I know) the Internet has made being a hypochondriac – someone obsessed with the idea of having a serious but undiagnosed medical condition – much easier than it used to be.
“A lot of the stuff on the Internet, especially on health-related bulletin boards, is pure impression and anecdote,” says Arthur Barsky, MD, of Harvard Medical School. “And they just don’t have a lot of scientific validity.”
A study, conducted by researched at the Harvard Medical School, assessed the accuracy of websites offering medical information and found that the correct diagnosis came up first only 34% of the time – which doesn’t sound like a particularly trustworthy result.
“Some patients researching health conditions online are motivated by fear, and the listing of concerning diagnosis by symptom checkers could contribute to hypochondriasis and ‘cyberchondria,’ which describes the escalated anxiety associated with self diagnosis on the Internet,” the researchers write.
Medical Director found that last year’s most common Doctor Google symptom searches in Australia were ‘how to cure a cold’ peaking between May and June, ‘hayfever cure’ around September, ‘listeria symptoms’ following the rockmelon listeria outbreak of March 2018, ‘heartburn cure’ after a day of Christmas indulgence and of course, ‘how to lose weight’ peaking after New Year’s Eve.
Perhaps it’s time we give our friendly IRL doctors a call next time we’ve got a health concern, rather than relying on the weird and wonderful answers provided by the Internet.