Prevalence of Self-Diagnosis among Nepalese College Students

Practice of diagnosing oneself with medical condition or disorder without confirmation by official diagnostician through the usage of various symptoms checker websites, assurance from one’s sources, books, magazines; apps and artificial intelligence chatbots to diagnose oneself with doubted medical condition, acute or chronic comes under self-diagnosis. This study determined the prevalence of self-diagnosis among Nepalese college students, was to examine the self-diagnosis habits and attitude of the students towards self-diagnosis in the absence of a registered doctor, physician or psychiatrist. A cross-sectional survey was conducted among N=408 college students of Kathmandu valley. A google form was designed with both close ended and open-ended questions to collect data. SPSS v20 was used to develop data file and descriptive statistical tools are used to analyze the collected data. Weighted average mean was calculated to develop attitude variable with four five-point Likert scale items. The study revealed that majority of Nepalese college students (76.5%) use Google as their main search engine for self-diagnosis. Friends and family members are the option of Nepalese students for self-diagnosis of their illness. The finding of the study suggested that most of Nepalese college students (66.7%) have doubt on accuracy of self-diagnosis through internet. The result of the study portrays that there is positive attitude towards self- diagnosis. Accuracy of self-diagnosis is still questionable, so self-diagnosis practice should be discouraged as sometimes it may provide false assurance to severe cases through mis-diagnosis. The positive attitude towards self-diagnosis among them indicates the future scope of internet of things in self-diagnosis. Accuracy of self-diagnosis is still questionable, so self-diagnosis practice should be discouraged as sometimes it may provide false assurance to severe cases through mis-diagnosis. The study identified limited evidence on the diagnostic accuracy of self-diagnosis. Awareness regarding negative impact of self-diagnosis and symptoms checking habits is necessary. Health literacy among the Nepalese people is essential, the study contributes in the literature of self-diagnosis. Policy makers should be aware towards discouraging self-diagnosing habits among Nepalese people.