Christmas is the season of giving and goodwill and NHS Digital has trawled through the analytics of NHS Choices over the past year to bring you the numbers behind what the nation is searching for via this improvised Christmas Carol.
On the first day of Christmas NHS Choices gave to me – 525 million reasons to visit
Over the past year NHS Choices has received 525 million visits from people seeking healthcare advice, of which some 63 per cent were from people using mobile phones, which works of as a whopping 330 million visits from people accessing nhs.uk at their fingertips. The most visited individual page was the homepage with 10.7million visits.
On the second day of Christmas NHS Choices gave to me – Belly ache
The most searched for condition on NHS Choices in 2017 was ‘stomach ache and abdominal pain’ with 2.1 million visits to that page, making it the 20th most visited in the past year.
In 2016-17 there were a total of 632,210 admissions to hospital where a diagnosis of abdominal and pelvic pain was given.
On the third day of Christmas NHS Choices gave to me – A healthier build
A surge in people looking to check out the ‘BMI healthy weight calculator’ made it the second most visited webpage on NHS Choices with 9.7 million views. The calculator tool was used 8.9 million times – making it the most used tool on NHS Choices.
The 2016 Health Survey for England found that 26 per cent of people had a BMI that classified them as obese.
On the fourth day of Christmas NHS Choices gave to me – A healthy toolkit
The number of people visiting the tools on NHS Choices rose by seven per cent in the past year.
While the BMI calculator was the most visited, the second most-visited tool was the ‘blood pressure’ monitoring tool, which has been used 1.2million times.
The Health Survey for England 2016 found 28 per cent of people suffered from hypertension (high blood pressure).
On the fifth day of Christmas NHS Choices gave to me – Greater understanding of sepsis
Following a rise in the press coverage surrounding sepsis cases in hospital there was an 18 per cent rise in the number of sepsis searches on NHS Choices.
There were around 172,000 diagnoses in 2016-17 of sepsis in hospitals, up from 146,000 in 2015-16.
On the sixth day of Christmas NHS Choices gave to me – An increase in searches for scarlet fever
There were more than 1.3million visits to the NHS Choices page on scarlet fever, tying in with a 50-year high in the number of people contracting the disease in 2017.
A total of 1,203 diagnoses of the disease were recorded in hospitals in 2016/17.
On the seventh day of Christmas NHS Choices gave to me – A European holiday
People across the UK were still keen to get their hands of European Health Insurance Cards (EHIC) in 2017.
There were 2.8million click-throughs from NHS Choices to the NHS Business Services Authority’s EHIC registration page.
On the eighth day of Christmas NHS Choices gave to me – A pregnancy ponder
The question that was asked most was ‘can I get pregnant just after my period has finished?’ with more than 1.2 million clicks through to that particular answer.
There were 636,401 deliveries in NHS hospitals in England during 2016-17 according to the annual NHS Maternity Statistics report.
On the ninth day of Christmas NHS Choices gave to me – A full workout
The most viewed video on the NHS Choices site in 2017 was a 45-minute introduction to Pilates for beginners.
Pilates was developed by German-born Joseph Pilates, who believed mental and physical health were closely connected.
Pilates aims to strengthen the body in an even way, with particular emphasis on core strength to improve general fitness and wellbeing.
On the tenth day of Christmas NHS Choices gave to me – A guide to life
The Christmas story is one that will be told in countless nativity plays over the festive period.
Mary and Joseph might not have had YouTube at their disposal two millennia ago, but new parents now can receive guidance on what happens post-birth online now.
The NHS Choices video ‘What are the first things that will happen once my baby is born?’ clocked up over 90,000 views in 2017.
Their YouTube channel also has a number of videos suggesting how to treat minor ailments as well as tips for staying healthy this winter.
On the eleventh day of Christmas NHS Choices gave to me – An increase in awareness about antidepressants
Out of the 26.6million visits that were made to the beta version of nhs.uk, the most viewed page was for the antidepressant ‘Sertraline’.
There were 11.2million Sertraline items dispensed in England in 2016, up from 1.9million in 2006.
On the twelfth day of Christmas NHS Choices gave to me – A search for a mythical hangover cure
With Christmas notorious as a boozy time of years, those looking to find a way through the pain of a heavy session have gone to NHS Choices in their droves, with 412,474 visits to the hangover cures page in 2017.
Unfortunately, the message is that hangover cures don’t really work and the best way to avoid them is to drink only in moderation.
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