Interesting Facts

Cyberchondria is a revolutionary new illness that has swept the first world by storm. It has provided many more issues with hypochondriasis, since the ability to find the reasoning and proof of your potential illnesses is unlimited due to the wonderful creation called the internet. The internet has provided a way for those who didn’t have legitimate proof or reasoning to get the test done that they wanted that legitimate proof.

Did you Know:

·         80% of American internet surfers have searched for health-related information online
·         50% of people experience a decrease in health anxiety as a result of ‘interactions with the Web
And approximately 40% experience an increase in anxiety
·         90% of hypochondriacs will become cyberchondriacs
·         Approximately 1%-5% of the United States of America are hypochondriacs
·         The average American apparently spends around 52 hours per year looking up health information online through different search engines
·         The second most commonly googled health issue is Diabetes

Because Cyberchondria is such a new phenomenon, there is not much to work with yet but after going through many different websites, I’m sure a conclusion can be made that the population of cyberchondriacs is only going to get larger and larger. It just became really recognized as something important in 2008, it has only been eight years and the amount of information has multiplied significantly and is only expected to continue. The more easily people can gain access to the information they want to be connected with the more problems it could potentially cause only more issues in the advanced technological ages.'

Barry, D., Fine, A., Frey, R., JENNETT, C. B., "Hypochondria." Gale Encyclopedia of Psychology. 2001, "hypochondria." The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed.2015. "hypochondria." Oxford Dictionary of Rhymes. 2007. (2003). Hypochondriasis. Retrieved February 22, 2016, from http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/hypochondria.aspx

Http://www.innspub.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/IJB-V4No1-p158-166.pdf. (2014). International Journal of Biosciences (IJB) Int. J. Biosci., 4(1), 158-166.

Senelick, M. R. (n.d.). Cyberchondria: How the Internet Is Making Us Paranoid About Health. Retrieved February 22, 2016, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/richard-c-senelick-md/cyberchondria-you-can-cat_b_859085.html

Symptoms of Cyberchondria. (2013). Retrieved February 22, 2016, from http://phenomena.nationalgeographic.com/2013/10/30/symptoms-of-cyberchondria/

Top 10 most-searched medical conditions of 2013:Inside Children's Blog. (2014). Retrieved February 22, 2016, from http://inside.akronchildrens.org/2014/01/07/top  10-most-searched-medical-conditions/