Study: How Information Is Presented Online Can Affect Self-Diagnoses

The way that health information is presented online — particularly the order  in which symptoms are displayed — can affect how patients diagnose themselves, according to a study published in the journal Psychological Science, Newsroom America reports (Newsroom America,  3/16).

Study Details

For the study, researchers from Arizona State University, the University of  California-Irvine, Ono Academic College and the University of Warwick conducted  two experiments.

In the first experiment, researchers presented students with lists of  symptoms for a fictional type of cancer. The students were asked to check off  the symptoms they had experienced and rate their likelihood of having the  cancer.

The students were divided into three groups, which received either:

• A list of three general symptoms followed by three specific ones;
• A list of three specific symptoms followed by three general ones; or
• A list alternating between general and specific symptoms.

In the second experiment, researchers presented the students with lists of  either six or 12 symptoms for meningioma, a real type of cancer. The students  were divided into groups, which received one of the three types of symptom lists  used in the first experiment (Association for Psychological Science release, 3/15).

Key Findings

In the experiment that looked at symptoms for the fictional type of cancer,  participants who had received the list alternating between specific and general  symptoms were less likely than participants receiving the other two types of  lists to say that they could have cancer (Chan, “Healthy Living,” Huffington Post, 3/18).

Researchers wrote that when participants check off several symptoms in a row,  “they perceive a higher personal risk of having that illness” (Newsroom  America, 3/16).

In the experiment that looked at symptoms for the real cancer, researchers  found that participants were less likely to think that having several symptoms  in a row indicated that they could have cancer if they received the list of 12  symptoms instead of the list of six (“Healthy Living,” Huffington Post,  3/18).

Researchers wrote that the longer list of symptoms allowed several boxes to  be left unchecked, which helped participants feel reassured that they did not  have cancer (APS release, 3/15).

Implications

Virginia Kwan — a psychologist and the lead researcher of the study — said  the findings could be useful for public health education. She said that health  officials could encourage people to seek health screenings sooner by grouping  common and mild symptoms together when describing a disease.

Kwan added that officials also could curb patient overreactions by listing  rare symptoms first (Newsroom America, 3/16).

Source: iHealthBeat

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