Plenty of people do it – it’s been estimated that Google’s health-related searches amount to approximately 70,000 every minute.
But new research from Edith Cowan University has found that it’s usually a waste of time.
A study by the university published in the Medical Journal of Australia reveals that online symptom checkers are only accurate about a third of the time.
Using data from 36 international mobile and web-based symptom checkers, researchers found they produced the correct diagnosis as the first result just 36 per cent of the time, and within the top three results 52 per cent of the time.
The research also found that the advice provided on when and where to seek health care was accurate 49 per cent of the time.
The study’s lead author and ECU Masters student Michella Hill said the findings should give people pause for thought.
“While it may be tempting to use these tools to find out what may be causing your symptoms, most of the time they are unreliable at best and can be dangerous at worst,” she said.
Hill said the online symptom checkers may be providing a false sense of security.
“We’ve all been guilty of being ‘cyberchondriacs’ and Googling at the first sign of a niggle or headache,” she said.
“But the reality is these websites and apps should be viewed very cautiously as they do not look at the whole picture – they don’t know your medical history or other symptoms.
“For people who lack health knowledge, they may think the advice they’re given is accurate or that their condition is not serious when it may be.”
While Hill cautions against using online symptom checkers for diagnosis, she notes that they can have a place in the modern health system.
“These sites are not a replacement for going to the doctor, but they can be useful in providing more information once you do have an official diagnosis,” she said.
“We’re also seeing symptom checkers being used to good effect with the current COVID-19 pandemic. For example, the UK’s National Health Service is using these tools to monitor symptoms and potential ‘hot spot’ locations for this disease on a national basis.”
