Pew Internet Report Pertaining to Online Health Information Searching Behaviors of Consumers

Last month, the Pew Internet & American Life Project published a report authored by Suzannah Fox and Sydney Jones entitled, “The Social Life of Health Information” (3 MB, .pdf).  The 72-page report is the output from a December 2008 telephone survey of 2,253 US adults asked questions pertaining to “…the social impact of the internet on health care.”  Some of the more interesting findings and comments, include:

• Now, 74% of American adults go online, 57% of American households have broadband connections, and 61% of adults look online for health information.” (p. 2)
• “Half of all online health inquiries (52%) are on behalf of someone other than the person typing in the search terms.” (p. 2)
• “Health consumers are often looking for tailored information, searching for a ‘just-in-time someone-like-me.’” (p. 3)
• “Fully 42% of all adults, or 60% of e-patients, say they or someone they know has been helped by following medical advice or health information found on the internet.” (p. 4)
• “Looking closer at how people use the internet for health care, it is clear that some are going online to connect, in fact, with what we think of as traditional sources: health professionals, friends, and families.” (p. 7)
• “Technology can help to enable the human connection in health care and the internet is turning up the information network’s volume.” (p. 7)
• “American adults continue to turn to traditional sources of health information, even as many of them deepen their engagement with the online world.” (p. 11)
• “…the Center for Studying Health System Change finds that just 41% of patients have the knowledge and confidence required to manage their health in this new world.” (p. 13)
• “While offline conversation about health information may be robust, it seems that the online conversation about health may be lopsided. There are many more readers and listeners than there are writers and creators of online content.” (p. 16)
• “…experts remain vital to the health-search and decision-making process. Americans’ longstanding practices of asking a health professional, a trusted friend, or a wise family member persist as patients pursue good health. These are practices which, in the words of John Seely Brown and Paul Duguid “will not budge” and therefore require designers of any new health care application “to look not ahead, but to look around” in order to see the way forward.” (p. 21)
• “In 2002, 63% of internet users looked online for information about a specific medical problem, and, in 2008, 66% did so.” (p. 24)
• “Currently, 55% of internet users go online to find information on medical treatments and procedure, up from 47% in 2002.” (p. 27)
• “Currently, 45% of online adults look for information about prescription or over-the-counter drugs, up from 34% in 2002.” (p. 41)

Overall, this is an informative report that developers of online health information products and services, among others, should take the opportunity to read.

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