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Danes third biggest hypochondriacs in Europe
Ben Hamilton
October 21st, 2020
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This article is more than 4 years old.
Anxiety the most searched for symptom on Google
Everything is dilating (photo: Wellcome Images)
One thing that grates with most new arrivals is how often people in Denmark claim to have the flu. Pneumonia is another ailment common in these parts, along with chronic bronchitis.
Of course, this is absolute poppycock, but we tolerate these drastic diagnoses and write them off as language errors.
Or are they?
Not as bad as the Spanish
According to an analysis of Google data carried out by Lenstore, the Danes are the third most hypochondriac nation in Europe.
At 143 symptom searches per 100,000 people every day, the Danes are almost five times more likely to self-diagnose than the average Brit or Irish person.
Only the Spanish and French are more apt to turn to Google to check their symptoms.
Anxiety the most searched for
Across the world, diarrhoea, anxiety, and vertigo are the most searched for symptoms.
‘Anxiety’ was number one in Denmark, followed by constipation, fever, migraine, sore throat and a cold – 6,600 people a month google ‘a cold’, with most presumably reaching the conclusion they have flu.
On what was a long list, there were a few strange inclusions, including cloudy urine (590 a month), white tongue (again 590) and trapped wind (just 10 … and we’re safer for it).
Cyberchondria: a Nordic trait
The top eleven was completed by Turkey, Sweden, Switzerland, Norway, Estonia, the Czech Republic, Finland and Iceland, underscoring that hypochondria is something of a Nordic trait.
In fact, the healthcare industry has given the online doctors a new label for their condition: ‘cyberchondria’.
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