So this is an update to this thread: What Was Your Crohn's Misdiagnosed As?
Judging from the hits to my blog I don't think everyone who helped out has taken a look yet.
The results are posted here with a chart:
Research Result - What Was Your Crohn's Misdiagnosed As?
It would be great to get more contributors!
This is the basic summary:
> Data was collected from 27 people . One was me, one from a blog, and 25 from the thread in the forum mentioned above.
> There is a total of 98 diagnoses.
> 4 of the 27 (15%) had no misdiagnoses. They were diagnosed correctly the first time they sought medical attention. Two of those 4 (50%) had a family history of Crohn’s. The other two didn’t mention family history.
> The average number of misdiagnoses is 3.6. This means that if you’ve been diagnosed with Crohn’s then the number of different misdiagnoses you’ve had is probably between 3 and 4.
> There are 37 different categories of misdiagnosis.
> In the raw count the most popular misdiagnosis is IBS (14%) followed closely by Gastroenteritis (13%). The flu was third (9%).
> When depression, “psychological”, stress, anorexia, and anxiety are grouped together as “Psychological” then this becomes the most popular misdiagnosis (16%).
> If the data is further grouped such that each of the single and double responses are put in an “Other” category then this becomes the biggest group (21%).
> I’ve found the above result regarding “Other” to be surprising. An explanation could be that the number of times IBS or Gastroenteritis, for example, was diagnosed ended up being under-counted. This could happen if a respondent recalls the time they were misdiagnosed with “Bad Gas” but doesn’t necessarily recall just how many times they were uniquely misdiagnosed with IBS or Gastroenteritis. Further study would be necessary to gain more clarity. A well worded survey and a larger data set could get a better result.
> Also notable is the flu category which constitutes 9% of the misdiagnoses. It would be interesting to know how many other diseases are mistaken for the flu.
> Another interesting study would be to survey the people who were diagnosed correctly the first time. What were the steps the healthcare practitioners took? What type of healthcare practitioner saw them? And is 50% a representative number of those who disclosed they had a family history of Crohn’s? I would conjecture that a significant number of first diagnoses have a family history of Crohn’s.
> I have been unable to find any prior research studies doing similar analysis. If you happen to find any or know of any please post the reference in the comments section.
Judging from the hits to my blog I don't think everyone who helped out has taken a look yet.
The results are posted here with a chart:
Research Result - What Was Your Crohn's Misdiagnosed As?
It would be great to get more contributors!
This is the basic summary:
> Data was collected from 27 people . One was me, one from a blog, and 25 from the thread in the forum mentioned above.
> There is a total of 98 diagnoses.
> 4 of the 27 (15%) had no misdiagnoses. They were diagnosed correctly the first time they sought medical attention. Two of those 4 (50%) had a family history of Crohn’s. The other two didn’t mention family history.
> The average number of misdiagnoses is 3.6. This means that if you’ve been diagnosed with Crohn’s then the number of different misdiagnoses you’ve had is probably between 3 and 4.
> There are 37 different categories of misdiagnosis.
> In the raw count the most popular misdiagnosis is IBS (14%) followed closely by Gastroenteritis (13%). The flu was third (9%).
> When depression, “psychological”, stress, anorexia, and anxiety are grouped together as “Psychological” then this becomes the most popular misdiagnosis (16%).
> If the data is further grouped such that each of the single and double responses are put in an “Other” category then this becomes the biggest group (21%).
> I’ve found the above result regarding “Other” to be surprising. An explanation could be that the number of times IBS or Gastroenteritis, for example, was diagnosed ended up being under-counted. This could happen if a respondent recalls the time they were misdiagnosed with “Bad Gas” but doesn’t necessarily recall just how many times they were uniquely misdiagnosed with IBS or Gastroenteritis. Further study would be necessary to gain more clarity. A well worded survey and a larger data set could get a better result.
> Also notable is the flu category which constitutes 9% of the misdiagnoses. It would be interesting to know how many other diseases are mistaken for the flu.
> Another interesting study would be to survey the people who were diagnosed correctly the first time. What were the steps the healthcare practitioners took? What type of healthcare practitioner saw them? And is 50% a representative number of those who disclosed they had a family history of Crohn’s? I would conjecture that a significant number of first diagnoses have a family history of Crohn’s.
> I have been unable to find any prior research studies doing similar analysis. If you happen to find any or know of any please post the reference in the comments section.
