Study: Users Selectively Look To Web For Health Info

Study: Users Selectively Look To Web For Health Info

More people find the Internet a useful source of health and medical information now than in the past, but the Web appears to have gained more ground in other areas of people's lives, according to a new report by the Pew Internet & American Life Project.

A December 2005 Pew survey of 1,931 adult Internet users found that 20 percent of online Americans said the Internet has greatly improved how they get health care information. But the same survey found that 32 percent of Americans said the Internet has greatly improved their ability to shop, 33 percent said the Internet has vastly improved how they pursue hobbies and interests, and 35 percent reported that the Web has greatly helped them do their job.

"So what's going on here?" asks the report. "Does the Internet matter less for health than it does for finding that one-of-a-kind iPod case you've been hunting for?"

The answer turns out to be more complicated--and to depend, on large part, on timing. Researchers proposed that the Web will be a more important source of health care information to those facing a health crisis themselves, or helping someone else through one, than the public at large.

More than one in three--36 percent--of the respondents that had helped someone else through a health crisis, and that thought the Internet played a critical role in the crisis, reported that the Web helped them find advice or support from other people. Thirty-four percent said the Web helped them find professional advice, and 26 percent said the Internet helped them compare options.