A 2013 study conducted by Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project found out that 35 per cent of US adults at one time or another have gone online specifically to try to figure out what medical condition they or someone else might have. Of those, over a third did not visit a clinician to get a professional opinion.
Australia, too, seems to be suffering from a similar problem. A 2011 study by health insurance provider Bupa discovered that 80 per cent of Australians got health information off the internet, with almost half of those doing so to diagnose a medical condition. The Australian Medical Association warned Australians of the dangers of self-diagnosis and self-medication, as the study showed that 70 per cent of the country’s citizens also sought information about medicines.
