Getting on the Internet for Health Advice
Susannah Fox of The Health Care Blog posts these interesting stats about people going online to seek out health information. Makes you wonder if this availability of information will change the healthcare paradigm. Take a look:
Ten percent of internet users say they searched for health information "yesterday," which in a tracking survey like this one yields a picture of the "typical day" online. Health has moved up in the "typical day" list (from 7 percent in 2006 to the current 10 percent of internet users), but for most people the average day includes lots of emails (60 percent of internet users), general searches (49 percent), and news reading (39 percent) if they are online at all (30 percent of internet users are offline on a typical day).
- 68% of online men look online for health info
- 81% of online women
- 76% of white internet users
- 65% of African-American internet users
- 71% of English-speaking Hispanic internet users (new health data on the whole Latino population is coming out August 13 from the Pew Hispanic Center)
- 68% of 18-29 year-old internet users
- 78% of 30-49s
- 76% of 50-64s
- 71% of internet users age 65+ (but remember, only one-third of seniors go online at all)
The internet is a great tool, but you’ve got to be careful. There is a lot of garbage floating around, like Weston Price and Atkins. But there is good stuff too! Like this great video on heart disease from The Adventist Chip Association—thanks Annette!
