Internet searches for serious health conditions on the rise

Number of Britons self-diagnosing themselves using Google is on the rise, study finds

A person prepares to search the internet using the Google search engine (Philippe Huguen / (AFP/Getty Images)

Internet searches for serious health conditions have increased by thousands of percentage points over the last three years, according to new research.

UK search volumes for terms such as "how to know chest pains are serious" have risen by 8,781 per cent from 2015 to 2018, the analysis of Google data has found.

Searches for keywords such as "sciatica", "acne", "IBS" and "treatment" have been searched over 100,000 times, on average, every year since 2015.

"Stomach ache" and "aching legs" were also found to top online searches, with an average of 115,800 and 151,075 searches over the same period.

"GP near me" was googled 500,000 times between January and August alone this year.

“The NHS has been looking after the health of the nation for 70 years now," said Hannah Sims, Product Manager for Perkbox Medical, which commissioned the research. “It’s a wonderful system, but it isn’t without its challenges, particularly in primary care."

The research also found that the number of Britons self-diagnosing themselves using Google is on the rise.

"How to know if chest pains are serious?" was among the most searched terms with 14,210 average searches from January to August this year.

"How to get rid of back pain?" received 12,800 average searches in the same period, and "how to get rid of stomach pain?" garnered 18,200 average searches.

Ms Sims added: “Many of these symptoms account for key causes of absenteeism at work, which costs the UK economy £77 billion per year."

SWNS