Should you search the Internet for information about your acute symptom?

Telemedicine Journal and E-health : the Official Journal of the American Telemedicine Association
Frederick NorthSidna M Tulledge-Scheitel

Abstract

To determine if symptom-related Web sites give sufficient information for users to seek urgent care when warranted. We reviewed 120 Web sites (15 sites for each of eight acute symptoms). Symptom-related sites were identified with Google, Yahoo!®, and Bing™ searches and focused on potentially hazardous symptoms such as chest pain, shortness of breath, abdominal pain, and syncope. We reviewed each symptom-related site for the presence of critical symptom indicators (key symptom characteristics and associated factors) that triage the user to urgent care. Of the 120 sites reviewed, 41 (33%) contained no critical symptom indicators. No site contained a complete set of critical symptom indicators. Overall, out of the 1,020 total critical symptoms searched for in the sites, we only found 329 (32%). When present, critical symptom indicators were found on the top half of the first page of the site in only 34%. Specific recommendations for further care were absent in 42% of the cases where critical symptom indicators were identified. Symptom-related sites ranked highly by major search engines lack much of the information needed to make a decision about whether a symptom needs urgent attention. When present, this information is usually no...Continue Reading

References

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Jan 11, 2011·Telemedicine Journal and E-health : the Official Journal of the American Telemedicine Association·Frederick NorthSidna Tulledge-Scheitel

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Citations

May 25, 2013·Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association : JAMIA·Frederick NorthSidna M Tulledge-Scheitel
Dec 20, 2013·Telemedicine Journal and E-health : the Official Journal of the American Telemedicine Association·Frederick NorthRobert J Stroebel
May 23, 2013·Pain Practice : the Official Journal of World Institute of Pain·Viji KurupNalini Vadivelu
Jun 27, 2018·PloS One·Natascha C M VerzantvoortAlike W van der Velden
Jan 7, 2021·Journal of Medical Internet Research·Xiangmin FanFeng Tian
Nov 5, 2021·Applied Clinical Informatics·Elana A MeerJohn D McGreevey

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Software Mentioned

JMP
Yahoo
Google [UNK] Keyword Tool
Google AdWords
Bing
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Word
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