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The Growing Demand For Health
Information
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What is "consumer health information"?
Consumer health information is simply health or medical
information produced or intended for people who are not
health professionals. Consumer health information helps
people to understand their health and make health-related
decisions for themselves or someone else. It also includes
information about prevention and wellness. Consumer health
information can be found anywhere from pharmacies, grocery
stores, and health food stores, to bookstores, physicians
offices, libraries, and of course, the World Wide Web.
Why should I know about consumer health information?
Several reports point to information regarding the evolving
trend of Americans and their quest for health information:
- Internet Health Resources: Health searches and email
have become more commonplace, but there is room for
improvement in searches and overall Internet access, Pew
Internet & American Life Project, July 16, 2003
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Increasingly, members of the general public [your
patrons] are going to the World Wide Web in search of
health information, either for themselves or a loved one.
In a recent national survey, it was determined that 80%
of Internet users, or 93 million Americans have gone
online in search of at least one of 16 major health
topics. This makes the act of looking for health or
medical information one of the most popular activities
online, after email (93%) and researching a product or
service before buying it (83%).
Read
more...
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Vital Decisions: How Internet users decide what
information to trust when they or their loved ones are
sick, Pew Internet & American Life Project, May
22, 2002
About 6 million Americans go online for medical advice on
a typical day. That means more people go online for
medical advice on any given day than actually visit
health professionals, according to figures provided by
the American Medical Association. Only about one quarter
of health seekers follow the recommended protocol on
thoroughly checking the source and timeliness of
information and are vigilant about verifying a site's
information every time they search for health
information.
Read
More...
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Cyberchondriacs Update, Harris Poll #21, May 1,
2002
80% of all adults who are online (i.e., 53% of all
adults) sometimes use the Internet to look for health
care information. However, only 18% say they do this
"often", while most do so "sometimes" (35%), or "hardly
ever" (27%). This 80% of all those online amounts to 110
million cyberchondriacs nationwide. This compares with 54
million in 1998, 69 million in 1999 and 97 million last
year. These data show that the Internet continues to be
used by huge, and growing, numbers of the public
interested in getting information about particular
diseases or treatments or about staying healthy. The
results also demonstrate the critical importance to
health care websites of the need to be quickly and easily
accessible through search engines and portals.
Read More...