From medical institutions to technology corporations; and from health start-ups to investors – everyone in the health field has seemingly turned their focus toward digital health during the pandemic. While the number of virtual visits to the doctor’s office is decreasing after the lockdowns ended, the field is has remained strong.
With this trajectory, what are the consumer attitudes toward digital health? A new survey of 1,004 U.S. adults carried out in 2022 by digital health company Kilo Health shows several new trends that might shine a new light on health-related consumer behaviour online.
According to the Kilo Health survey, 93 percent of the U.S. population searched for health information online at least once, and 82 percent say they have tried health advice they found online.
Here, 74 percent claim to have researched up to five different topics, while 19 percent said they have looked for more than five topics. In most cases, people were researching around 3 topics. This shows a steep growth from 2009, when, according to the U.S. CDC, 61 percent of people sought health information online. In 2014, Pew Research Center reported that the number of adult internet users researching health information online was 72 percent.
According to Kasparas Aleknavicius, Head of Medical Affairs at Kilo Health, this growth, while natural due to the higher adoption of technology in general, poses a risk.
“False information is more likely to be shared on social media sites than accurate news,” explains Aleknavicius to Digital Journal. “If people are trying out health advice they find online at such a high rate, they could be putting their health in danger.”
A systematic review of 69 studies that analyse the key health misinformation topics and their prevalence shows that misinformation is a huge issue – in some studies, 87 percent of posts reviewed included false claims.
Also, the findings from an MIT research study show that false news stories are 70 percent more likely to be retweeted. Research from the American Psychological Association scholars confirms that misinformation tends to spread. This means that a person who is susceptible to one type of misinformation (such as, about vaccines or cancer) is more likely to trust false information about other topics, too.
This leads to the questions: What kind of advice and information do people access, and how does it impact their health?
Another undercurrent is that people are using search engines to get more educated about their symptoms. According to the survey, 65 percent of people are likely to research their symptoms online before they contact a doctor when they feel unwell.
However, this may mean that people might not visit the doctor after they “self-diagnose” online or get stressed after checking unreliable information sources and coming to conclusions about their condition’s seriousness.
