School of Public Health and Health Systems, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON, Canada.
JMIR Public Health Surveill. 2021 Jan 6;7(1):e22637. doi: 10.2196/22637.
Young adults often browse the internet for self-triage and diagnosis. More sophisticated digital platforms such as symptom checkers have recently become pervasive; however, little is known about their use.
The aim of this study was to understand young adults' (18-34 years old) perspectives on the use of the Google search engine versus a symptom checker, as well as to identify the barriers and enablers for using a symptom checker for self-triage and self-diagnosis.
A qualitative descriptive case study research design was used. Semistructured interviews were conducted with 24 young adults enrolled in a university in Ontario, Canada. All participants were given a clinical vignette and were asked to use a symptom checker (WebMD Symptom Checker or Babylon Health) while thinking out loud, and were asked questions regarding their experience. Interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed, and imported into the NVivo software program. Inductive thematic analysis was conducted independently by two researchers.
Using the Google search engine was perceived to be faster and more customizable (ie, ability to enter symptoms freely in the search engine) than a symptom checker; however, a symptom checker was perceived to be useful for a more personalized assessment. After having used a symptom checker, most of the participants believed that the platform needed improvement in the areas of accuracy, security and privacy, and medical jargon used. Given these limitations, most participants believed that symptom checkers could be more useful for self-triage than for self-diagnosis. Interestingly, more than half of the participants were not aware of symptom checkers prior to this study and most believed that this lack of awareness about the existence of symptom checkers hindered their use.
Awareness related to the existence of symptom checkers and their integration into the health care system are required to maximize benefits related to these platforms. Addressing the barriers identified in this study is likely to increase the acceptance and use of symptom checkers by young adults.
年轻人经常上网进行自我分诊和诊断。最近，更复杂的数字平台，如症状检查器，已经变得无处不在；然而，对于它们的使用情况却知之甚少。
本研究旨在了解年轻人（18-34 岁）对使用谷歌搜索引擎与症状检查器的看法，以及确定使用症状检查器进行自我分诊和自我诊断的障碍和促进因素。
采用定性描述性案例研究设计。对加拿大安大略省一所大学的 24 名年轻成年人进行了半结构式访谈。所有参与者都收到了一个临床病例，并被要求在使用症状检查器（WebMD 症状检查器或 Babylon Health）时大声思考，并被问及他们的体验。访谈进行了录音、转录，并导入到 NVivo 软件程序中。两位研究人员独立进行了归纳主题分析。
与症状检查器相比，使用谷歌搜索引擎被认为速度更快且更具可定制性（即，能够在搜索引擎中自由输入症状）；然而，症状检查器被认为更有助于进行个性化评估。在使用症状检查器后，大多数参与者认为该平台在准确性、安全性和隐私性以及使用医学术语方面需要改进。鉴于这些局限性，大多数参与者认为症状检查器更适合自我分诊，而不是自我诊断。有趣的是，超过一半的参与者在此之前并不了解症状检查器，而且大多数人认为对症状检查器存在的这种认识不足阻碍了他们的使用。
需要提高对症状检查器的存在及其整合到医疗保健系统中的认识，以最大限度地发挥这些平台的益处。解决本研究中确定的障碍可能会提高年轻人对症状检查器的接受度和使用度。
