University of Twente Student Theses

Can the WebMD self-diagnosis tool be used to affect care-seeking behavior related to visiting a general practitioner? : Using self-diagnosis to reduce unnecessary visitations to general practitioners with the goal of making more efficient usage of available resources.

Haaren, T.M.R. van (2022) Can the WebMD self-diagnosis tool be used to affect care-seeking behavior related to visiting a general practitioner? : Using self-diagnosis to reduce unnecessary visitations to general practitioners with the goal of making more efficient usage of available resources.

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Abstract:	In 2021 the Dutch association for general practitioners (Landelijke huisartsen vereniging/LHV) published a survey detailing the degree of work pressure experienced by general practitioners. From this survey, we can conclude that 69% of general practitioners experience unreasonably high levels of pressure and that because of this pressure 64% of general practitioners are unable to do tasks necessary for running their clinic. (LVH, 2021). This pressure will only become worse due to demographic ageing as such we are required to reevaluate how we use our available resources. Knowing that research has shown that at least 29% of general practitioner visits are deemed unnecessary (Neprofarm, 2010) I propose to try and lower this percentage through symptom checker usage. As such the question I seek to answer through this research is ‘Can the WebMD self-diagnosis tool be used to affect careseeking behavior related to visiting a general practitioner.’. With the goal of ‘reducing unnecessary visitations to general practitioners by making more efficient usage of available resources.’ This study used a qualitative two-phase approach where in the first phase content analysis is performed during a literature review. This is done to find answer to sub-question one through four and concepts and keywords to be used in the coding phase of the interviews. In the second phase interviews were conducted and then analyzed according to a thematic approach where a coding scheme was used which was created through a mix of inductive and deductive coding. The result chapter serves as a way of presenting the results obtained through the coding of the interviews and ends with a conclusion which provides answer to sub-question five. In the conclusion we read that the WebMD symptom checker influences care-seeking behavior. Although the measured effect mostly serves as an increase in care-seeking behavior this effect however does occur in instances where care was necessary leading to patients making better decision for their personal health. A small level of reduction was also measured in several patients. It is however clear that the symptom checker has a measurable effect on care-seeking behavior. The study used a pre-decided search strategy for searching out articles and carefully evaluated and compared articles which showed conflicting results. It is however possible that some sense of bias creeped into this because the eventual decision was not made by an expert on the subject matter. Future studies on the reduction of care-seeking behavior could benefit from a broader list relatively harmless diseases that lead to unnecessary care-seeking behavior as the current mix of diseases mostly measure increases.
Item Type:	Essay (Bachelor)
Faculty:	BMS: Behavioural, Management and Social Sciences
Programme:	Management Society and Technology BSc (56654)
Link to this item:	https://purl.utwente.nl/essays/92836
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