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St. Louis Front Page
Community News
P.O. Box 1354
St. Louis, MO 63188
http://www.slfp.com
Voice: 314-771-0200
Fax: 314-771-0300
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editor@slfp.com
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Cyberchondriacs Increases to Estimated 117 Million
ST. LOUIS, (PRNewswire), July 16, 2005 - The number of U.S. adults who have ever gone online to look for health or medical information has increased to approximately 117 million up from about 111 million last year.
Despite a decrease over the last three years in the percentage of online U.S. adults who have ever searched the Internet for health-related information (from 80% in 2002 to 72% now), the actual number of adults who have ever searched for health information online ("cyberchondriacs") has grown due to an increase in the percentage of U.S. adults who go online (from 66% in 2002 to 74% in 2005).
The percentage of cyberchondriacs who search sometimes or often appears to also be on the rise. Most adults who have ever looked for health information online have been generally successful in finding what they are looking for and believe the information to be at least somewhat reliable. Furthermore, many of these people use this information in their discussions with their doctors or use the Internet to help augment the information that doctors provide them.
These are some of the results of a nationwide Harris Poll of 1,015 U.S. adults surveyed by telephone by Harris Interactive between June 7 and 12, 2005.
- The number of U.S. adults who have ever gone online to look for health
or medical information has increased to approximately 117 million up
from about 111 million last year(1). The main reason for this increase
seems to be that the total number of Internet users has been increasing
(from 69% of all U.S. adults in 2004 to 74% now). Cyberchondriacs now
represent 72 percent of all online adults, down slightly from last
year's 74 percent.
- However, compared to last year, online adults appear to be searching
the Internet for health-related information more frequently.
-- Almost six in 10 (58%) say that they have looked for information
about health topics often (25%) or sometimes (33%), an increase of
eight percentage points from 2004 (50%).
-- The percentage who says they hardly ever search for health
information has dropped to 14 percent, down from 24 percent last
year.
-- Eighty-five percent of those who have ever searched the Internet for
health information have done so one or more times in the last month.
This is up substantially from last year when 60 percent said that
they had gone online one or more times in the past month looking for
health information.
-- On average, a cyberchondriac searches the Internet almost seven
times per month, an increase from five times per month a year ago
and three times per month four years ago in 2001.
- A large majority of cyberchondriacs (89%) indicate that they were
successful in searching for health information online. Forty-six
percent say that they were very successful and another 43 percent say
they were somewhat successful. Among those cyberchondriacs who search
for health information often, those saying they were very successful
increased to 60 percent. Conversely, only a third (32%) of
cyberchondriacs who hardly search for health information say that their
searching was very successful.
- Nine in 10 (90%) cyberchondriacs say that the health information they
found online has been reliable (37% "very reliable" and 53% "somewhat
reliable").
Cyberchondriacs are not only using the Internet to better educate themselves but many are also using it to assist in their discussion with their physicians. By 57 to 43 percent, a majority of adults who have gone online to get health information say that they have discussed this information with their doctor at least once. Furthermore, just over half (52%) of cyberchondriacs have searched for health information based on a discussion with their doctor.
Those who often use the Internet to find medical information are even more inclined to discuss this information with their doctor or to search for information based on a discussion with their doctor.
- Over half (53%) at least sometimes talk to their doctor about
information that they found online.
- A higher 70 percent have gone to the Internet to look for presumably
additional information to supplement what their doctors have told them.
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