Carefully tracking symptoms or general health metrics can give physicians a more holistic view of patients, but when taken too far, symptom tracking can make patients feel worse, according to a report from Wired.
This phenomenon, that simply thinking about symptoms can make them worse, is called the nocebo effect. Wired cites several studies that show expectations can shape how people experience symptoms, and in some cases, their outcomes. For example, a Canadian researcher tracked patients in exercise therapy for a low back injury. Some of the patients kept a pain diary, while another group was asked not to track symptoms. At the three-month mark, only 52 percent of the group tracking symptoms had recovered, while 79 percent of the group that didn't track symptoms recovered.
Wired reports that 15 percent of adults track symptoms of disease and about 15 percent track sleep. As hospitals and health systems begin to develop apps for specific disease states, it is important to consider the various implications of symptom tracking.
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