AOL recently posted the Internet company's list of top 10 health conditions searched in 2009, and there were a couple of surprises.
Not surprisingly, swine flu ranked No. 1. But a couple of other health terms that made the AOL list, such as lupus and herpes, could make you stop and scratch your head (not because of any medical condition lurking on the scalp, mind you).
"Swine flu is new and a hot search term, obviously something people are really concerned about," says Tanya Edwards, editor in chief of AOL Health.
Though the list does change year to year, Edwards says, there are some perennial topics, including diabetes, pregnancy and breast cancer. "They consistently come up. They affect a wide swath across the U.S.," she says.
Internet health experts say there are a handful of reasons that motivate people to type a health topic into a search box on their computer screen and wait, sometimes nervously, for the results, including a new diagnosis or concern for a family member.
Search engines such as AOL and Google, whose top 10 list for 2009 overlaps somewhat with AOL's, are typically the first place Internet health info seekers turn, not academic medical center or hospital websites, says Susannah Fox, associate director of digital strategy at the Pew Internet & American Life Project.
"We've found consistently in our health surveys that a general search is the first stop for health consumers on the Internet," Fox says.
Fox says half of online health queries are for someone else. And women are more likely to conduct health searches than men.
They're also generally younger and more healthy than the general population, says Fox, who is working on a report that indicates people with chronic disease are less likely to go online and more likely to be older.
Why lupus and herpes?
A celebrity's health problem will spark interest, says Matt Feyen, who manages Mayoclinic.com.
Lupus interest spiked prominently last spring on AOL when rapper Trick Daddy announced his diagnosis, says Chris Savarese with AOL.
As for sexual and mental health: "You don't want to go ask your mom. The Internet is the first place to look for the things you don't necessarily want to talk about with anyone," says Aaron Watkins, director of e-strategy and Web services at Johns Hopkins Medicine.
But don't trust just any online source, says physician Roger Harms, medical editor in chief of Mayoclinic.com. Instead, click trusted science-based resources such as cdc.gov, nih.gov and sites established by academic medical centers.
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