People may look for health care information online, but few talk about it online.
That’s according to a survey from the Pew Internet and American Life Project and the California Healthcare Foundation.
- 80 percent of internet users search for health care information online
- Only 9 percent of those using social networking sites reported starting or joining a health-related group
- 11 percent reported posting comments, queries or information on health matters
Although not all U.S. adults use the internet, the percentage that do and who look for health care information equates to 59 percent of the total U.S. adult population.
The findings are from phone interviews, conducted between August 9 and September 13, 2010 by Princeton Survey Research Associates International. The interviews surveyed over 3,000 adults, age 18 or older.
Symptomatic Search
The most popular searches centered around specific diseases and treatments. Below is a chart that illustrates the top searches by information topic.
Searching for health information is the third most popular online pursuit of the survey respondents.
- Email activity is first
- Using a search engine is second
- Gathering health information ranked above getting news or buying a product
Interestingly, nearly half (49 percent) of those searching for health information reported doing so on behalf of someone else.
Making Tracks
The results show that 27 percent of internet users (or 20% of adults) used online tracking for –
- Weight
- Diet
- Exercise routine
- Other health indicators or symptoms
For kicks, I entered Google top health websites.
Google Page Rank Order shows:
- WebMD
- Health on the Net Foundation
- InteliHealth
- AOLHealth (Everyday health)
- BBC Health
Although not on the above list, the National Institute of Health ranks #168 on Google’s Ad Planner Top 1,000 most-visited websites.
I never could figure out Google rankings.
How about you? What is your favorite resource for online health information?
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{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
I tend to use the NHS and NHS Direct sites in the UK, Cathy, but have also looked for info on BBC Health, WebMD and the Mayo Clinic site.
Sharon Hurley Hall´s last [type] ..About A Writer – A New Approach
All great resources, Sharon. I’m kind of surprised the Mayo Clinic wasn’t one of the ones mentioned.For my health care writing, I use the NIH quite a bit.
Thanks for sharing some additional resources, Sharon.
Thanks for posting this; the study is interesting.
I poked the executive summary of the study that you linked to and was surprised to see that there was not a wide variation as to the proportion of people from each generation who searched for this information; for example, 78% of the 18- to 34-year olds looked for health info and 84% of 35- to 46-year olds looked for health related information online. I expected the proportion of younger people searching for this information to be much lower vs older people.
I know that the study summary reports that “gathering health info ranked above getting for news,” but I don’t see statistics reported anywhere for this study (I would want to see P<.05 to say it is truly different) and the percentages are very close (80% vs 75%, respectively). But that's me….
I think that this study brings up addition questions. I’d be really interested in knowing how people interpret the information and what they do with the information. For example, if someone suspects they have side effects from a medication, I think that a better place to look to see if it associated with the medication and the proportion of people affected would the prescribing information documents for the medication, which are published and easily found online. Most people, however, may go to forums and randomly google the information and is that the best place to look?
My favorite resources for health information are: pubmed, google scholar, guidelines (i.e. NCCN guidelines for different types of cancer), and the New England Journal of Medicine if I want a quick overview and what's hot in medicine. Sometimes I also look at some of the continuing medical information (CME) websites, too, because it is in very digestible pieces of information (i.e. slide decks, podcasts, etc.).
Susan K´s last [type] ..My 5 Steps to Becoming a Freelance Medical Writer
Hi Susan: Thanks for a very insightful comment.
Let me start by saying one of my all-time favorite Mark Twain quotes is: “There are three kinds of lies: Lies, Damned Lies and Statistics.”
I review reports like this with interest, but know that no statistic tells the whole story.
I also use the New England Journal of Medicine; however, I see by your last post you’re a medical writer so I understand why you would. I’m not sure the average consumer would.
Again, thanks for stopping by, Susan, and giving a valid perspective to the survey.