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People increasingly go online for health information

The Harris Poll® #76, July 31, 2007

Harris Poll Shows Number of "Cyberchondriacs" – Adults Who Have Ever Gone Online for Health Information– Increases to an Estimated 160 Million Nationwide

Searching the Internet for health care information has become more widespread in the past year. Over the last two years, the number of people who have used the Internet to search for health-related information has also increased markedly, (from 53% in 2005 to 71% currently). This brings the number of all U.S. adults who have ever searched for health information online (Harris Interactive® refers to them as "cyberchondriacs") to 160 million, from 136 million in 2006 and 117 million in 2005 — a 37 percent increase over two years.

The proportion of these "cyberchondriacs" who search online either often or sometimes has also risen. Most adults who have ever looked for health information online claim that they have been at least somewhat successful in finding what they were looking for. In addition, the great majority believes the information to be at least somewhat reliable, and most of them have talked to their physicians about the information they found on the Internet.

These are some of the results of a nationwide Harris Poll of 1,010 U.S. adults surveyed by telephone by Harris Interactive between July 10 and 16, 2007.

Specifically, the survey found:
The number of U.S. adults who have ever gone online to look for health or medical information has increased to approximately 160 million up from about 136 million last year. The reasons for this increase are that the total number of Internet users has increased somewhat and the percent of people online who have looked for information has increased as well. Cyberchondriacs now represent 84 percent of all online adults, up from last year's 80 percent, and 72 percent in 2005;
Two thirds (66%) of adults online say that they have looked for information about health topics often (26%) or sometimes (40%), an increase of five percentage points from 2006 (61%);
The percentage of online adults who say they hardly ever or never search for health information has dropped to 34 percent, down from 39 percent last year and 43 percent in 2005;
Interestingly, while three-quarters (74%) of those who have ever searched the Internet for health information have done so once or more often in the last month, this is down from 2005 when 85 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 six (5.7) times per month;
As in the past a large majority of cyberchondriacs (88%) continues to report that they were successful in searching for health information online. However, the percentage of those who say they were "very successful" has declined from 46 percent two years ago and 42 percent last year to only 37 percent now; and
Fully eighty-six percent of cyberchondriacs say that the health information they found online was reliable (26% "very reliable" and 60% "somewhat reliable"). Interestingly, this has declined slightly from 2005 when 90 percent felt this way. Of special note, the percentage of those who indicate that online medical information was "very reliable" has declined substantially from 37 percent in 2005 to the current 26 percent.

Cyberchondriacs are not only using the Internet to educate themselves, many are also using it to assist in their conversations with their physicians. A 58 percent majority of adults who have gone online to get health information say that they have discussed this information with their doctors at least once in the last year.

Furthermore, more than half (55%) of cyberchondriacs have searched for health information based on discussions with their doctors. This is an increase of ten percentage points from last year's 45 percent.

So What?

The huge and growing numbers of "cyberchondriacs" who use the internet to look for health information and to help them have better conversations with their doctors has surely had a big impact on the knowledge of patients, the questions they ask their doctors and is therefore changing the doctor-patient relationship and the practice of medicine. There is every reason to believe the impact of the Internet on medical practice will continue to grow.