Evidence map›Paper›PMID 40133390›Full record

ArticleNPJ digital medicine2025

Accuracy of online symptom assessment applications, large language models, and laypeople for self-triage decisions.

Marvin Kopka, Niklas von Kalckreuth, Markus A Feufel

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in NPJ digital medicine, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 23 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
23citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

23 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. Article
  2. Article
  3. Article
  4. Article
  5. Article
  6. Article
  7. Article
  8. Article
  9. Article
  10. Article
  11. Article
  12. Article
  13. Article
  14. Article
  15. Review
  16. Article
  17. Article
  18. Editorial: The promise of sleep technology.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2026
    Article
  19. Article
  20. Review
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

3 authors.

Marvin KopkaDivision of Ergonomics, Department of Psychology and Ergonomics (IPA), Technische Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany. marvin.kopka@tu-berlin.de.
Niklas von KalckreuthDivision of Ergonomics, Department of Psychology and Ergonomics (IPA), Technische Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany.
Markus A FeufelDivision of Ergonomics, Department of Psychology and Ergonomics (IPA), Technische Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Symptom-Assessment Application (SAAs, e.g., NHS 111 online) that assist laypeople in deciding if and where to seek care (self-triage) are gaining popularity and Large Language Models (LLMs) are increasingly used too. However, there is no evidence synthesis on the accuracy of LLMs, and no review has contextualized the accuracy of SAAs and LLMs. This systematic review evaluates the self-triage accuracy of both SAAs and LLMs and compares them to the accuracy of laypeople. A total of 1549 studies were screened and 19 included. The self-triage accuracy of SAAs was moderate but highly variable (11.5-90.0%), while the accuracy of LLMs (57.8-76.0%) and laypeople (47.3-62.4%) was moderate with low variability. Based on the available evidence, the use of SAAs or LLMs should neither be universally recommended nor discouraged; rather, we suggest that their utility should be assessed based on the specific use case and user group under consideration.

Identifiers

PMID40133390
PMCPMC11937345

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.