Analysis of Answers to Queries among Anonymous Users with Gastroenterological Problems on an Internet Forum

Mikołaj Kamiński, Michał Borger, Piotr Prymas, Agnieszka Muth, Adam Stachowski, Igor Łoniewski and Wojciech Marlicz
Additional contact information
Mikołaj Kamiński: Sanprobi Sp.z o.o. Sp. k., 70-535 Szczecin, Poland
Michał Borger: Faculty of Medicine I, Poznan University of Medical Sciences, 60-780 Poznań, Poland
Piotr Prymas: Faculty of Medicine I, Poznan University of Medical Sciences, 60-780 Poznań, Poland
Agnieszka Muth: Faculty of Medicine I, Poznan University of Medical Sciences, 60-780 Poznań, Poland
Adam Stachowski: Faculty of Medicine I, Poznan University of Medical Sciences, 60-780 Poznań, Poland
Igor Łoniewski: Department of Biochemistry and Human Nutrition, Pomeranian Medical University, 70-204 Szczecin, Poland
Wojciech Marlicz: Department of Gastroenterology, Pomeranian Medical University, 70-204 Szczecin, Poland

IJERPH, 2020, vol. 17, issue 3, 1-13

Abstract: Internet forums are an attractive source of health-related information. We aimed to investigate threads in the gastroenterological section of a popular Polish medical forum for anonymous users. We characterised the following aspects in threads: the main problem of the original poster, declared ailments and rationale of the responses (rational, neutral, harmful or not related to the problem of the original poster). We analysed over 2717 forum threads initiated in the years 2010–2018. Users mostly asked for diagnosis of the problem [1814 (66.8%)], treatment [1056 (38.9%)] and diagnostic interpretation [308 (11.3%)]. The most commonly declared symptoms were abdominal pain [1046 (38.5%)], diarrhea [454 (16.7%)] and bloating [354 (13.0%)]. Alarm symptoms were mentioned in 309 (11.4%) threads. From the total 3550 responses, 1257 (35.4%) were assessed as rational, 693 (19.5%) as neutral, 157 (4.4%) as harmful and 1440 (40.6%) as not related to the user’s problem. The original poster’s declaration of blood in stool, dyspepsia, pain in the abdominal right lower quadrant, weight loss or inflammatory bowel disease was positively related to obtaining at least one potentially harmful response. Advice from anonymous users on Internet forums may be irrational and disregards alarm symptoms, which can delay the diagnosis of life-threatening diseases.

Keywords: forum; Internet; gastrointestinal ailments; infodemiology; abdominal pain; advice; thread; diarrhea; Poland; bloating (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/3/1042/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/3/1042/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:17:y:2020:i:3:p:1042-:d:317505

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().