Harris Shows Number of Cyberchondriacs increases to an Estimated 160 Million Nationwide
As you know I’ve been following this number for 10 years (not to mention working with and at Harris during part of that time), and the increase in the last few years has been remarkable. After all the fast pace growth in the internet was in the 1990s not in the 2000s, yet its use for health care continues to increase.
And talking about cyberchondria, I had severe chest pain about a month ago that felt pretty bad while I was out of state. I searched on the web for chest pain, confirmed that I had 3 of 4 symptoms of a heart attack and got myself to a doctor rapidly. The EKG was negative, but of course had there been no Internet I might not have bothered and I might have ignored a heart attack or arrhythmia. Presumably that’s not the preferred use of health online, but it really helped me.
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People who go to the Internet to gather information about a disease have a more positive outlook and are more active participants in their treatment. Sometimes people go online to get new perspectives and stimulate ideas about a situation. There is nothing wrong in wanting to take an active role in decisions regarding ones own treatment and see their relationship with the physician as one of partnership.