Should You Search the Internet for Information About Your Acute Symptom

Abstract Objective: To determine if symptom-related Web sites give sufficient information for users to seek urgent care when warranted. Materials and Methods: We reviewed 120 Web sites (15 sites for each of eight acute symptoms). Symptom-related sites were identified with Google, Yahoo!®, and Bing™ searches and focused on potentially hazardous symptoms such as chest pain, shortness of breath, abdominal pain, and syncope. We reviewed each symptom-related site for the presence of critical symptom indicators (key symptom characteristics and associated factors) that triage the user to urgent care. Results: Of the 120 sites reviewed, 41 (33%) contained no critical symptom indicators. No site contained a complete set of critical symptom indicators. Overall, out of the 1,020 total critical symptoms searched for in the sites, we only found 329 (32%). When present, critical symptom indicators were found on the top half of the first page of the site in only 34%. Specific recommendations for further care were absent...