Medical Information-Seekers Go Online

(WebMD)  More Americans are searching for health information online than ever before, but they're also becoming choosier about where they find it.

A new survey from the National Institutes of Health shows that 58 percent of adults looked for health or medical information on the Internet in 2005, compared with 51 percent in 2003.

The number of Americans who searched for health information online for someone else also increased from 46 percent to 60 percent during the same time period.

The survey also shows a growing preference toward getting health information from a health care provider rather than from other sources, such as books, friends and family, information specialists, and the Internet.

For example, the number of people using the Internet to communicate with their health care provider or their provider's office, such as e-mailing questions or setting up appointments on a Web site, rose from 7 percent in 2003 to 10 percent in 2005.

The Health Information National Trends Survey (HINTS) sponsored by the National Cancer Institute of the National Institutes of Health was conducted among a random telephone sample of more than 6,300 people in 2003 and 5,500 people in 2005.

The results show that more people are searching for health information online, and younger or more educated people are more frequently users of the Internet for health information.

Other findings include:

People aged 50 to 64 most frequently searched for cancer-specific information online;

24 percent said they trusted information from the Internet "a lot" in 2003 compared with 19 percent in 2005;

The percentage who named the Internet as their preferred source of cancer-related health information decreased from 34 percent in 2003 to 28 percent in 2005;

The percentage who named a health care professional as their preferred source of cancer-related health information increased from 49.5 percent to 55 percent.


By Jennifer Warner
Reviewed by Louise Chang<, M.D.
© 2007, WebMD Inc. All rights reserved

[gaye5]

Well, I am a 62 female, and very young for my age. I wonder if it could be because I don''t use Medical drugs unless absolutely necessary..
My level of salt and butter intake is very very high, I love my bread on butter, snow (salt) on just about everything but my cholesterol is normal and my blood pressure is 98/70, toooo low..(I don''t recommend this for others, but it does make one wonder eh).

Some months ago I decided to try to get my blood pressure up to somewhere near normal, and went to the Dr to make sure that that was my problem, he immediately put me on tablets, but now having established that this was indeed my problem I went home and studied many things on the net, and didn''t get the tablets..
We had a phone call a week ago from the Dr who told me to get off those tablets as it was killing people... So who do they test these drugs on, us????
He was thrilled to hear that I hadn''t taken them at all and that consequently no damage would have been done.. GREAT EH...
I have no intentions of being their guinea pig unless there is no other way, then and only then will I take the risk..

[darrellwy]

I had cancer and doing research on the internet helped with understanding questions to ask, the meds. given to me and just what the cancer was. There is much more to it than just cancer. Even tho the doctors explained it to me &amp; my family, the internet was a very good resource to have. I still use it when I need to find out what kind of information I need before seeing my doctors and I have several, but I still talk with them about any health problems I am having.