Around 63% of the world’s population are Internet users.
That number increased as smartphones and social media have become more popular. My point is that it’s easy for all of us to access volumes of information.
Health information is no exception. Each year, 80% of patients use the internet for a health-related search. This makes it especially convenient for a patient to self-diagnose any concerning feelings they experience.
It’s faster and cheaper to Google our symptoms instead of visiting a doctor. In fact, symptom checkers can lead to a 5% reduction rate in general practitioner visits in the US. This would save over 9.5 billion US dollars.
While this sounds convenient, self-diagnosing isn’t that safe. It’s often inaccurate and can even contribute to problems with mental health. Here are some important statistics to prove it.
Table of Contents
Admit it, You've Done it Before
Why do People Do it Often?
The Accuracy of Symptom Checkers
Most Likely to Self-Diagnose
Mental Health and Self-Diagnosing
Conclusion
Admit it, You've Done it Before
I don’t want to call you out, but it’s highly likely that you’ve typed your symptoms into a search engine before. We all have, it’s human nature to try to figure out why we’re feeling ill.
Its also convenient, which explains why there are more younger people who use the internet than see a physician. Of the Generation Z adults, 45% don’t have a primary care physician. And 51% of Millennials see a doctor less than once a year.
But studies show that the number of adults who self-diagnose on the internet could be close to or well over 50%.
As of 2015, over a third of US adults regularly use the internet for self-diagnosis. (National Institutes of Health)
By 2018, this was up to 44% of American adults. (Becker’s Hospital Review)
A new study from 2019 revealed that this number could be up to 65%. (PhillyVoice)
35% of those who used the Internet to determine the medical condition of themselves or someone else didn’t visit a clinician for a diagnosis. And 18% consulted a professional who didn’t agree with their self-diagnosis. (Pew Research)
Why do People Do it Often?
We simply don’t have as much time to “kill” as we used to. We live in a face-paced world, where results reign supreme.
Many people try to avoid the doctor altogether because of their busy schedules. This is especially true for younger groups. They prefer having health information right at their fingertips.
Fortunately, this is possible through symptom checkers. These are online tools which can assess patients’ condition based on self-reports of their symptoms. And they’re growing in popularity.
As of 2015, symptom checkers had 100 million uses in the US alone. (Becker’s Health Review)
One tool, Healthdirect Symptom Checker, doubled in use during 2019. It has over 2 million uses per year. (InsightPlus)
Almost 16% of people who use symptom checkers are using them to obtain medical advice without needing to see a doctor. (JMIR Publications)
84% perceive these as a diagnostic tool, and 76% said they provided insights to leading them closer to a diagnosis. (JMIR Publications)
The Accuracy of Symptom Checkers
These apps and websites do have some positives associated with them, though. They provide more information about conditions so patients are more educated before seeing a doctor. Or, they suggest that a patient seek immediate medical help.
But this isn’t always the case. Like I already mentioned, some people use these checkers instead of going to the doctor. But different conditions can have similar symptoms, and some may need more urgent care.
These symptom checkers also are not always accurate with diagnoses or triage. Triage refers to the level of emergencies such as urgent care, non-emergent care, and/or self-care.
If the diagnosis or triage is incorrect, people seek treatment that isn’t necessary or dismiss getting treatment entirely.
Symptom checkers give appropriate triage advice in 57% of standardized patient evaluations. In two-thirds of evaluations where medical attention wasn’t necessary, these checkers encouraged getting care. (The BMJ)
These tools list the correct diagnosis first in only 34% of cases, in the top three for 51%, and in the top 20 for 58%. (The BMJ)
Diagnostic accuracy by doctors is 85% to 90%. (The American Journal of Medicine)
Most Likely to Self-Diagnose
Do you remember superlatives handed out at the end of every year? Since you’re reading this blog post I imagine you won “Most Likely to Succeed”.
These research organizations conduct studies on such a granular level that I imagine they could likely hand out a superlative to an entire group of people for “Most Likely to Look Up Their Symptoms”.
But I digress, a lot of what you’ll find within this section is that younger individuals are much more likely to look up their ailment than others. That probably isn’t that much of a surprise to you, considering how tech-savvy today’s youth is.
What’s more interesting, though, is the fact that women around their mid-thirties are also likely to type in symptoms into Google. Is it safe to assume that these women are likely Moms trying to figure out whether or not they should take their kid to the doctor?
Or perhaps they're going through pregnancy or postpartum and trying to determine if their symptoms are normal. After all, that's a completely new experience.
As of 2017, 19% of US adults would occasionally use health apps to self-diagnose, and 6% of adults used them regularly. (Statista)
One study found that 67% of symptom checkers were females. The average age was 34 years old, compared to the average population age of 37. (PubMed)
Adults ages 18 to 29 uses health apps to self-diagnose more than any other adult age group. 28% of them used the apps occasionally, and 10% used them regularly. 46- to 60-year-olds follow at 7% for regular use. And 30- to 45-year olds followed at 25% for occasional use. (Statista)
Arkansas is the state with the highest rate at 83.3% of people who prefer self-diagnose rather than see a medical professional. (Seattle Malpractice Lawyers)
Mental Health and Self-Diagnosing
I mentioned this earlier but it’s worth pointing out again, self-diagnosing online can cause people to seek medical attention that they don’t need or avoid the help that they do need. But it can also cause issues with mental health.
First, it causes people to worry about their condition if they find a serious condition with similar symptoms. They can also start convincing themselves that they have a certain disease.
Mental illnesses often get misdiagnosed since they’re detected from self-reported symptom checklists. There aren’t many physiological tests for mental health conditions. The checklists cause 26% to 45% of people referred for depression who don’t actually meet diagnostic criteria. (Psychology Today)
Doctors can only correctly identify depression in 47.3% of cases. And 22% of people with bipolar disorder receive a misdiagnosis of depression. People with this condition experience a 10-year gap before receiving a correct diagnosis. (Psychology Today)
The amount of online health information readily available for self-diagnosing can contribute to worse mental health conditions. The biggest instance of this is with Munchausen’s syndrome, also known as Factitious Disorder Imposed on Self.
This is a mental disorder when a person continuously acts like they have a health issue even if they aren’t sick. Patients with FDIS create, complain of, or exaggerate symptoms of illnesses that don’t exist. Munchausen’s syndrome by proxy, or Factitious Disorder Imposed on Another, is when someone fabricates illness for someone under their care. This is a form of abuse.
There’s no way to know how many people these conditions affect since patients can be successful in deceiving their health providers.
Estimates suggest that FDIA impacts 2 in 100,000 children. The condition makes up an estimated 1,000 of the 2.5 million cases of child abuse each year. (Cleveland Clinic)
The majority of those affected are female at a ratio of 4:1. (NHS)
FDIA has a mortality rate of around 9%. (PubMed)
The cause for this condition is not always known, but two theories are that it’s a result of childhood trauma or personality disorder. Even though self-diagnosing doesn’t cause these conditions, it helps enable these patients to be successful.
People with this condition may have extensive medical knowledge so that they can better deceive doctors. Online health information and symptom checkers that aid in self-diagnosing makes it easier to get this knowledge.
Conclusion
With how often people use the internet and how much health information is online, people will inevitably self-diagnose. It isn’t always bad since it can reduce unnecessary visits which reduces cost. Or it can convince patients that they do need to seek a professional diagnosis.
But unfortunately, symptoms can match so many conditions. It's impossible to know what’s wrong without medical attention, yet young people prefer to use the internet over a provider.
Not only that, but symptom checkers are generic and use self-reporting. They’re often wrong and can even give incorrect advice for the level of care that’s necessary.
The results just cause stress and can contribute to people fabricating an illness. Even though this isn’t the result of self-diagnosing, it makes it easier when there’s so much accessible health information.
