If so, you may be giving your doctor a headache!  So suggests a national survey run by Capstrat, a public relations and marketing firm, who along with Public Policy Polling, a company created to measure and respond to public opinion, surveyed 678 Americans regarding which online health resources they use to find health information.  The survey was conducted this past April.  One of the findings was that 22 percent of respondents named Google as "the single most influential source" that they used the last time that they needed information on a health issue.  Google was second only to doctors, who ranked 44 percent, and was named more than twice as ofen as nurses, pharmacists, advocacy groups and friends or family members.  Interestingly, when asked which health-related sources they found reliable, 71 percent of those polled judged the web content of health advocacy groups* as somewhat reliable or extremely reliable as compared to 59 percent who felt that way about Google searches.  As Karen Albritton, Capstrat president explained, "People are quick to search the Web for health information, just as they use it for most other questions today.  But when it comes time to make a decision, their trust resides where it always has in people".  The results of the survey indicate that someone might use Google to learn about their health issue, but they then turn to real people (health professionals and/or health advocacy groups) when it comes time to make a decision about their health issue.  Another interesting finding was that the younger respondents (less than 29 years old) were much less likely to consider pharmacists reliable sources of health information than did the "older" (30 to 45 years old) respondents, 25 percent vs. 83 percent.  The survey summary explains this discrepancy this way - the younger group may feel the lack of a personal relationship with the "chain pharmacists" while the older group still remembers the relationship that they had with their local pharmacist, who was usually the only pharmacist at their local "mom and pop" drugstore.  (Actually, in my opinion, one would have to be older than 40 to remember your local pharmacist, but as I said, that is just my opinion!)  The survey also suggests that, although the participants still hold their doctors in high esteem, the reality of modern health care makes them turn to online sources because of timeliness - it is difficult for your doctor to answer your health-related questions without seeing you in person.  People may not be able to or want to "take the time" to see their doctor or they may not be able to get an appointment right away.  In today's "information-on-demand" environment, people are accustomed to instant answers to their questions - thus we turn to online self-diagnosis if we can't get an answer from our doctor right away.  Then, if and when we do go see our doctor, we tell him what we think we have, instead of the other way around.    If we are wrong, our doctor now has to discredit the inaccurate online misinformation that led us to the wrong diagnosis and convince us of our correct diagnosis.  The summary of the study ends with Capstrat promising to continue polling on this topic and advises us to stay tuned to see how attitudes regarding various health care information sources change.  I plan to follow their studies with interest.  And, if you are going to to self-diagnose anyway, even though I recommend that you check with your doctor first (my disclaimer), at least be sure that you are using reliable sources.  The Merck Manual online might be a good place to start.  And, as I have blogged before, for comprehensive medical information about a disease or condition, you might want to use the Mayo Clinic's website.  (And now I have probably given a headache to any health professional that might be reading this!)  

*Such as the American Heart Association or the American Cancer Society.