Anyone looking for health information on Google could get really sick. One study found that the search engine gave wrong tips on a third of queries about symptoms and treatment options.
A team of researchers from Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (MLU) and the Russian Ural Federal University first filtered out 1.2 million queries on Google and the Russian search engine Yandex that included symptoms, diseases and treatment options.
In a second step, the answers to the 30 most frequently asked questions were checked, reports the science news site “DeutschesGesundheitsPortal”. The first ten small text snippets (“snippets”) that a search engine shows as a short preview of a hit were analyzed: a doctor checked their truthfulness and what it looked like with warnings about possible health risks.
Result: In about 30 percent of cases, Google incorrectly stated that a drug was effective against a certain disease – contrary to the scientific data available (Yandex: 44 percent). The researchers found evidence of potentially toxic substances in only ten percent of the cases (Yandex: 13 percent).
“The information from the snippets tends to confirm existing opinions and provide far too seldom warnings about possible risks,” explains one of the scientists. This is particularly problematic because previous studies have shown that people tend to believe in the effects of certain drugs, even if there is no scientific basis for them.
Researchers are calling for warnings
In most of the inquiries, the seekers either wanted to know whether a certain remedy helps against an illness or how a remedy can be used in an illness. “In the second case, it is assumed that a remedy helps, although this has not always been proven,” the scientist complains.
Therefore, search engine results should provide better and clearer warnings about possible risks in medical tips.