When you are sick, what do you do? Answer A: You go see your doctor. Answer B: You wait patiently for it to pass. Answer C: you make your own diagnosis from a Google search. To believe a recent Eurostat surveyEuropeans often choose (for 55% of them) the last option.
Between 2011 and 2021, a strong surge in health research has been observed online in Europe: + 17 points, notes Eurostat. The population studied in this survey ranged from 16 to 74 years old. Depending on the country, the searches are not as intense. The Finns are the most numerous to use this tool to find out about their health (80%), just behind come the inhabitants of the Netherlands (77%), the Danes (75%) and finally the Cypriots (74%). %).
Significant increase in online health searches
The researchers point out that Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Malta and Spain are the territories where the search for health information online has increased the most over the past ten years.
If the survey was carried out in 2021, at a time when health was worrying the whole world, due to the Covid-19 epidemic, the study states that targeted Internet searches are personal. These would not be generic queries about the epidemic.
The study does not answer the question of “why?” But perhaps the confinements, by limiting movement, contributed to this, and the anxiety-provoking health context also contributed to this need to interpret its symptoms.
Source: EU citizens: over half seek health information online, Eurostat, 6 April 2022.
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