Over a million tests taken on My MindChecker

24 April 2014

Following the phenomenal success of My HealthChecker and as part of Channel 4’s longstanding commitment to programmes exploring mental health My MindChecker www.channel4.com/mymindchecker launched nine days ago alongside Maverick TV’s Embarrassing Bodies Live from the Clinic  (Tuesdays, 8pm, Channel 4).

My MindChecker is an interactive mobile-optimised site that features eight mental health self-tests covering a range of conditions from ADHD, Depression, OCD to Dyslexia. As well as being able to test yourself, it provides advice and information for users.  

Over a million tests have been taken in the last nine days with huge traffic heading to the site after last night’s programme. The Autism test alone has been taken by over 400,000 people.

Results of the Autism test show:

• 9% of Women and 15% of Men came out as Very High Risk of suffering from an autistic spectrum disorder.
• 48% of Women and 59% of men came out as High or Very High Risk
• The 18-30 years olds recorded the highest overall risk, with those aged  61+ at lowest risk
• Computers & IT came out as the highest risk occupation
• Teaching came out as the lowest risk occupation

Embarrassing Bodies: Live from the Clinic presenter Dr Dawn Harper said “What we’ve seen really clearly is that most of us have autistic traits, and the nation's results from the huge sample here show that 48% of Women and 59% of men came out as High or Very High Risk.  For the vast majority of people it presents no issues at all, but we hope that these results will help to improve understanding of the condition”.

The data will be shared with the Autism Research Centre at Cambridge University and contribute towards academic research.

The test is not diagnostic, which means that if users score over 32, it doesn't mean they definitely have Autism or Asperger's Syndrome. Many people who score highly, and even meet the diagnostic criteria for mild Autism or Asperger's, report no difficulty functioning in their everyday lives. People should always check with a health professional if they have any concerns about their health