Transcript Opportunities and Challenges: Using the Internet for Prevention Susannah Fox November 17, 2003

Opportunities and Challenges:
Using the Internet for Prevention
Susannah Fox
November 17, 2003
Hypothesis:
Industrial Age medicine is dead…
medical
science
PHYSICIAN
non-MD staff
patient
Hypothesis:
…Information Age medicine is here
my online
support
groups
my online
patienthelpers
my favorite
health sites
my search
engine
my primary
doc
my specialist
doc
NET-SAVVY
PATIENT
qualityware
& communityware
other
self-helpers
my other
health experts
my online
docs
Methodology
Telephone surveys of the U.S.
population, including callback
surveys of e-patients (2000, 2001, &
2002)
 Online survey of e-patients, with an
over-sample of chronically ill and
caregivers (2002)

Findings in a nutshell

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More Americans look for health info online
than see a doctor on a typical day
Search engines are the starting point, not
specialized sites
Email is used for advice and support, esp.
for chronically ill & caregivers
Few verify information quality, but many
use what they find
Who are health seekers?



Half of American adults have looked
online for health information (esp. women,
30-49 year-olds, highly educated)
Half of Internet “health seekers” say they
will turn first to the Internet for their next
health question
Yet 1 in 4 American adults are cut off from
the Internet (esp. older, rural, lower
income)
Low-income: California



45% of low-income CA residents has
Internet access, compared to 36% of lowincome residents in other states
84% of low-income CA Internet users have
searched for health topics, compared to
77% of low-income users in other states
Lesson: lower income and education
levels do not automatically preclude
Internet health searches
Latino: California



58% of California’s English-speaking
Latinos have access to the Internet
78% have researched at least one topic
online, which is just below the average for
all Californian Internet users (83%).
But a national study found that Spanishspeaking Latinos are half as likely to
search online for health information.
Health status
Health seeker population
The well
Their traffic report
Newly diagnosed
Chronically ill
(Institute for the Future study, 2001)
Where e-patients go
Most e-patients start at a search
engine like Yahoo or a general site
like AOL – not a medical site – and
visit two to five sites
 Few have one favorite health site

How e-patients gather info
Most: Scattershot searches in
response to a diagnosis
 Some: Targeted email health news or
medical updates
 Few: Online support groups or email
lists for people concerned about a
particular health or medical issue

What they look for
80% of Internet users have searched for
at least one topic:
– 63% for specific disease
– 47% for a certain treatment
– 44% for diet, nutrition, vitamins
– 36% for fitness
– 34% for drugs
– Plus 10 other topics
Success

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Eight in ten health seekers find the
information they look for online at least
most of the time
More than half of search engine users
found information within the first three
sites they visited
Most health seekers say they had never
heard about the Web sites they ended up
consulting before they began the search
Many take it to heart


61% of health seekers say information
they found on the Web has improved the
way they take care of themselves
68% said that their last online search
affected their decisions about:
- how to treat an illness
- whether to visit a doctor
- whether to ask new questions or get a
second opinion
Bad information is dangerous
RAND/CHCF: Online advice is
incomplete and hard to understand –
esp. for Spanish readers
 NEJM: Americans receive about half
of recommended medical care

How e-patients check quality
Most trust the familiar
 Most distrust commercialism
 2 in 5 check the source
 1 in 3 check it out with a medical
professional

Three types of e-patients
Vigilant: 25% “always” check the
source, date, and privacy policy of a
health Web site
 Concerned: 25% check “most of the
time”
 Unconcerned: 50% “only
sometimes,” “hardly ever,” or
“never” check

Conclusion


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
More Americans look for health info online
than see a doctor on a typical day
Search engines are the starting point, not
specialized sites
Email is used for advice and support, esp.
for chronically ill & caregivers
Few verify information quality, but many
use what they find
Contact me:
Susannah Fox
[email protected]
www.pewinternet.org