Reddit for STD diagnose and crowd diagnosis  | Social Media and Healthcare | Scoop.it
From www.healthline.com - December 20, 2019 5:30 AM

"First, there was crowdfunding, now there’s crowd-diagnosis"

 

Where people turn to strangers on social media to get a diagnosis — including for STDs.

 

This trend has been growing in popularity, but the authors of a new study say diagnosing STDs using social media can often be unreliable.

 

  • Thousands of people post in an online health forum seeking a “crowd-diagnosis” of their sexually transmitted disease (STD).
  • A new study found people have turned to Reddit for help getting an STD diagnosis.
  • Experts say this isn’t a great idea, since other posters may not have a medical background or all the necessary information to give a definitive diagnosis.
  • But there are online sites like CrowdMed where licensed medical professionals may help people who are worried about a possible STD.
 
Thousands seek STD diagnosis online

 

In the study, researchers from the University of California, San Diego examined conversations on the social media website Reddit.

 

Reddit has a subreddit, or online forum, where people share “stories, concerns and questions” about “anything and everything STD-related.” Researchers obtained all posts from the r/STD subreddit from 2010 to 2019 — almost 17,000 in total. These were public posts with no information that could be used to identify the original posters.

 

Researchers found that 58 percent of the posts were requests for a crowd-diagnosis. Of those, 31 percent included an image of the person’s physical symptoms. In addition, 20 percent of the people asking for a crowd-diagnosis was seeking a second opinion after seeing a healthcare professional for the same health concern.

 

The majority of posts received a reply, with more than three-quarters of those receiving an answer in less than 1 day. The average time for the first response was just over 3 hours.

 

Convenience drives people to health forums

 

One thing that drives people to online health forums is convenience. After all, try getting an answer from your doctor in just 3 hours.

 

But Keber says people need to be careful when using these types of resources.

 

“There is no way to know who is answering these questions and addressing the concerns of the people writing in this venue,” Keber said.

 

“I especially have concerns about [people] using this as a ‘second opinion’ following an office visit with a licensed professional,” she added.

 

Online forums like those on Reddit are peer groups, so people responding may not have any medical training.

 

This differs from online tools like CrowdMed, where licensed physicians, medical students, physician assistants, and other health professionals provide opinions.

 

The true scope of online crowd-diagnosis unknown

 

Although the new study provides a snapshot of how people are seeking health information online, this research has some limitations.

 

STDs are also a condition that can cause “significant anxiety,” says Keber. This may drive people to sites like Reddit, where they can get an answer in a few hours or less.

 

Public interest in online health forums like Reddit comes as many STDs are on the rise. This includes syphilis, gonorrhea, and chlamydia reports the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)Trusted Source, with a particularly large increase in people 60 years or older.

 

There’s also a lot of information missing from the Reddit posts that could help health officials understand what’s going on.

 

"Like many social media studies, this study didn’t provide info on the location of the people posting about sexually transmitted infections (STIs) on Reddit, whether they were being honest or if it was a hoax, how their actual STI risk compares to those not using Reddit, etc.,” said Sean Young, Ph.D.

 

“Although crowd-diagnoses have the benefits of anonymity, speed, and multiple opinions, many are wildly inaccurate,” study author Dr. Christopher Longhurst, professor of biomedical informatics at UC San Diego Health, said in a statement.