Professional News and Articles

Many Americans use Internet as health resource

February 9, 2010

More than half of Americans looked up health information on the Internet last year, U.S. government researchers recently reported.

But only 5 percent of Americans used e-mail to communicate with their doctors, the survey by the National Center for Health Statistics found. Researchers surveyed 7,192 adults aged 18-64 between January and June 2009. The National Center for Health Statistics is part of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“Among adults aged 18-64, women were more likely than men to look up health information on the Internet (58 percent versus 43 percent) and were also more likely to use online chat groups to learn about health topics (4 percent versus 2.5 percent),” The center reported in a prepared statement.

The survey found 6 percent of adults requested a refill of a prescription on the Internet, and almost 3 percent had made an appointment with a healthcare provider in the previous 12 months using the Internet.

Other researchers have found doctors are reluctant to use the Internet or e-mail to communicate with patients because of concerns about privacy as well as confusion about how to charge for their time.