Interactions between health searchers and search engines

Abstract

The Web is an important resource for understanding and diagnosing medical conditions. Based on exposure to online content, people may develop undue health concerns, believing that common and benign symptoms are explained by serious illnesses. In this paper, we investigate potential strategies to mine queries and searcher histories for clues that could help search engines choose the most appropriate information to present in response to exploratory medical queries. To do this, we performed a longitudinal study of health search behavior using the logs of a popular search engine. We found that query variations which might appear innocuous (e.g. "bad headache" vs "severe headache") may hold valuable information about the searcher which could be used by search engines to improve performance. Furthermore, we investigated how medically concerned users respond differently to search engine result pages (SERPs) and find that their disposition for clicking on concerning pages is pronounced, potentially leading to a self-reinforcement of concern. Finally, we studied to which degree variations in the SERP impact future search and real-world healthseeking behavior and obtained some surprising results (e.g., viewing concerning pages may lead to a short-term reduction of real-world health seeking).

Does Search Engine Optimization come along with high-quality content?

“…Regardless of their position in the ranking, such results are clicked more frequently and examined in greater detail [52]. This attention bias may reinforce concern or anxiety, particularly for users who were concerned prior to searching [42]. Another factor is device screen size, which affects result perception and selection.…”

Investigating the Obsessive and Compulsive Features of Cyberchondria: A Holistic Review

“…However, based on such complex algorithms, SERP do not necessarily cover all topics related to query terms and may be biased toward specific views ( Gezici et al, 2021 ). Individuals sometimes perceive benign symptoms as serious diseases after viewing online content and may experience psychological distress ( Schoenherr and White, 2014 ).…”

Assessment of Diagnosis and Triage in Validated Case Vignettes Among Nonphysicians Before and After Internet Search

“… 1 , 2 The value of performing an internet search for health purposes is controversial, with concerns that it leads to inaccurate diagnosis, inappropriate triage (ie, choosing the right location to seek care), and increased anxiety (cyberchondria). 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 An internet search may lead people to low-quality health information that might hurt their choice of whether to get care or to alarming content that might easily overwhelm or confuse people. Some governments have even launched Don’t Google It advertising campaigns to urge their residents to not use the internet to search their health concerns.…”

“…Each day, millions of people worldwide who are confronted with new medical symptoms turn to the internet before seeking care to understand why they are ill, whether they should get care, and where they should get care . The value of performing an internet search for health purposes is controversial, with concerns that it leads to inaccurate diagnosis, inappropriate triage (ie, choosing the right location to seek care), and increased anxiety (cyberchondria) . An internet search may lead people to low-quality health information that might hurt their choice of whether to get care or to alarming content that might easily overwhelm or confuse people.…”