Any time I have a new ailment, I usually google my symptoms. Pew Internet & American Life Project estimate that 83 percent of Internet users have searched for health information. This week, Pew Internet said that 29 percent of cell phone users between the ages of 18 and 29 and 17 percent of all cell phone users have searched for health information online.
Why would people search for health information online and speculate what is wrong with them rather than talking to the doctor? Well, it may be because of the subject matter. Yahoo data says that out of the top five health issues people search for on their cell phones, three are sex-related – “pregnancy,” “herpes,” and “STD” (sexually transmitted disease).
However, these weren’t ranked as high on Google or Yahoo internet searches. Pregnancy came in at #7 on Yahoo while herpes came in at #10 on Google. Susannah Fox, the author of the study “The Empowered Patient,” said people search on cell phones because “health questions don’t crop up at convenient times or convenient places.”
Another reason may be age. Fox say the typical age for pregnancy and multiple partners is the 20s and 30s, so that may lead to more cell phone searches. Also, she said these types of questions might pop up when a person had their cell phone, but aren’t located near a computer.
“The Empowered Patient” survey came up with the five most commonly searched health terms. Like I said earlier, “herpes” came in at #2 on Yahoo’s mobile list and #10 on Google’s regular list.
“Pregnancy” came in at #1 on Yahoo’s mobile list. “Pregnancy/symptoms” came in at #7 and “pregnancy week by week” came in at #10 on Yahoo’s regular list.
“Breast cancer” came in at #4 and “depression” came in at #3 on Yahoo’s list. “Heart disease” came in at #2 on Google.