Microsoft recently released the results of a study it conducted on cyberchondria.  This of course is the condition in which people assume the worse conclusions about what ails them while researching online. 

Cyberchondria is not a new term and much has been speculated about the condition but according to Microsoft, this is the first study to systematically study cyberchondria.  The study analyzed health-related Web searched on popular search engines and a survey of 515 Microsoft employees. 

It seems that many of us treat search engines as an expert that can exercise medical judgement.  Searches of innocuous and common symptoms often lead to further searches of serious conditions.  Also, web search results for common symptoms like chest pain were just as likely to lead people to pages about heart attacks as indigestion, although heart attacks were much less likely.

Some interesting results also emerged from the survey:

 “Three in four survey respondents have at least once interpreted the ranking of Web search results as indicating the likelihood of the illnesses, with more likely diseases appearing higher up on the results page."

 “One in five survey respondents were convinced to seek medical attention based on the review of online medical content.”

o   “only one in four of the respondents that sought medical attention had a medical condition that warranted doing so.”

All in all an interesting study which details some of the user's predispositions.  The authors hope to use the results to improve the search experience for users and try to lower the chance that search results will lead to unfounded escalations.

Download the full study, Cyberchondria: Studies of the Escalation of Medical Concerns in Web Search.