There have been a few articles over the last couple weeks on how people are using the internet in relation to health issues. Microsoft published a research study. The results are interesting:
Our results show that Web search engines have the potential to escalate medical concerns. We show that escalation is influenced by the amount and distribution of medical content viewed by users, the presence of escalatory terminology in pages visited, and a user’s predisposition to escalate versus to seek more reasonable explanations for ailments. We also demonstrate the persistence of post-session anxiety following escalations and the effect that such anxieties can have on interrupting user’s activities across multiple sessions. Our findings underscore the potential costs and challenges of cyberchondria and suggest actionable design implications that hold opportunity for improving the search and navigation experience for people turning to the Web to interpret common symptoms.
The research has been getting some media attention from NY Times and Guardian.
I agree and disagree with it. I don’t believe I escalate my symptoms. I education myself on what I am experiencing but not in an unhealthy way. I do think I am probably on the abnormal side of the fence though. From reading message boards on MS, I totally see this happening on a regular basis. Heck, Tom had an eye twitch and he thought he had brain cancer. It happens everywhere.
I know that doctors are recommending people not read about their condition on the internet. My doctor warned me and agreed with my opinion of MS message boards. There are a lot of people that get some tingly feet and thing its MS. There is a long jump from tingly feet and MS. Maybe if I did escalate my symptoms I would have found out about the MS 3-4 years ago.
Which brings up an interesting point… would I have made different choices if I know about MS 4 years ago? I think I would which scares me a bit.
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2 responses so far ↓
1 Lisa Emrich // Dec 10, 2008 at 8:36 pm
Thanks for highlighting these articles Nina. I enjoyed reading them and find the research very interesting.
[Reply]
2 Nadja Tizer // Dec 15, 2008 at 5:44 pm
I think this makes a good point. I stay off the message boards but I think it is good to be mindful.
[Reply]
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