Widespread But Different Levels Of Internet Use For Health Purposes.

For the last four years, Harris Interactive has been tracking the number of people who go online to look for information about health topics, calling them “cyberchondriacs”. In the United States, their numbers have grown from 54 million in 1998 to 110 million in the latest (March 2002) survey.

This newly released four-country study finds that there are 48 million cyberchondriacs in Japan, 31million in Germany and 14 million in France. In all four countries, fully 69% or more (up to 90% in Japan) of those online qualify as cyberchondriacs.

Much, but not every, use of the Internet for health care purposes involves looking for information on specific medical conditions. This is most common, among cyberchondriacs in those four countries; in the U.S. (26% do it often), and Germany (25%), and much less common in Japan (6% do it often). In Japan, a third (34%) of all cyberchondriacs never look for information about a specific medical condition.

It would be a mistake to think that cyberchondriacs only look for health information for themselves. Large numbers do this, in all four countries, for their spouses, children, friends, parents, and other family members.

The types of websites visited vary somewhat from country to country. In the United States, the most visited sites are medical journals (45%), commercial health pages (44%) and academic or research institutions (43%). In France and Germany, they are commercial health pages (52% and 40%), academic or research institutions (50% and 50%). In Japan, patient advocacy or support groups (46%) top the list, followed by hospital sites (36%) and government sites (34%).

The Role of the Physicians

In a few cases, particularly in Japan, people only look for information if their doctor tells them to do so. Most people can be divided between two large groups (in all four countries). One group (from 60% of American cyberchondriacs to 47% in Japan) says they look for information on their own but rely on it only if their doctor tells them to do so. The other large group (from 37% in Japan to 46% in Germany) says they mainly judge the information on their own without consulting their doctors.

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