Microsoft Study Examines Cyberchondria
Posted on November 26th, 2008 by Mike Sachoff in the Articles section
A new study by Microsoft researchers has revealed that users searching for medical information online can often lead to more anxiety, as they tend to misdiagnose themselves.
Ryen White and Eric Horvitz from Microsoft Research conducted the study by looking at the effect of medical information on Internet users. The found people tend to believe they are sicker than they actually are after reading information about symptoms.
“The web has the potential to increase the anxieties of people who have little or no medical training, especially when web search is employed as a diagnostic procedure,” the researchers wrote.
“We use the term ‘cyberchondria’ to refer to the unfounded escalation of concerns about common symptomatology, based on the review of search results and literature on the web.”
Examples included people with headaches diagnosing themselves with brain tumors and chest pains as a heart attack.
The researchers focused on the results of searches on health related Web sites and also examined more than 500 Microsoft employees about the results of their health searches.
Tags: Microsoft |