Zoom on surveys
General statistics:
The
Internet World Stats:
This website gives worldwide statistics about the
world's Internet usage. For example, one can see that while Internet
use increased by 380% between 2000 and 2009, only about 25.6% of the
worldwide population have access to the Internet.
Internet Health Surveys:
October 2010 : Do you manage your health with your smartphone?
Title : Mobile Health 2010
This survey has been realised by the Pew and Internetin 2010. The results in this report are based on data from telephone interviews conducted by Princeton Survey Research Associates International between August 9 and September 13, 2010, among a sample of 3,001 adults, age 18 and older. Interviews were conducted in English and Spanish and included 1,000 cell phone interviews. For results based on the total sample, one can say with 95% confidence that the error attributable to sampling is plus or minus 2.5 percentage points. For results based on Internet users (n=2,065) and cell phone users (n=2,485), the margin of sampling error is plus or minus 3 percentage points.
The online health-information environment is going mobile. 17% of cell phone users have used their phone to look up health or medical information and 9% have software applications or "apps" on their phones that help them track or manage their health.
More than 300'000 health applications have been found (mainly iphone and Android).
In addition, 35% of U.S. adults have software applications or "apps" on their phones (but only one-in-four adults actually use them).
Summary:
http://pewresearch.org/pubs/1767/mobile-phone-search-health-medical-information
May 6th 2010 : Towards integrating the Internet better in the patient-physician relationship (in french)
Title : Les conséquences des usages d'Internet sur les relations patients médecins
This survey was conducted by the Conseil National de
l'Ordre des Médecins of France. They examined the use of the Internet
in France and its impact on the evolution of the patient-physician
relationship.
It shows that among other things, among the French people,
physicians are considered to be the most reliable source of health
information. However, 71% of them use the Internet to search for health
information. It also appears that among these 71%, 28% know that the sites they visit are certified, and among the 28%, 12% consult only certified websites.
March 24th 2010: The Pew Internet & American Life Project
Title: Chronic Disease and the Internet
Adults living with chronic disease are disproportionately offline in an online world.
Recent survey data from the Pew Internet Project and the California HealthCare
Foundation show that adults living with chronic disease are significantly less likely than
healthy adults to have access to the internet:
• 81% of adults reporting no chronic diseases go online.
• 62% of adults living with one or more chronic disease go online.
People managing multiple diseases are less likely to have internet access:
• 68% of adults reporting one chronic disease go online.
• 52% of adults living with two or more chronic diseases go online.
March 4th 2010: The Pew Internet & American Life Project
Title: All together now : the Internet does
not replace
health professionals
Personal reflections by Susannah Fox on an article published in New England Medicine on March 4, 2010.
March 3th 2010: The
Pew
Internet & American Life Project
Title : People still trust their doctors
rather than the
Internet
Personal reflections by Susannah Fox on an article published in New England Medicine on March 4, 2010.
September 2009 : Israeli study on the relationship of physicians with e-patients
Title : The
e-Patient: A Survey of Israeli Primary C are Physicians’
Responses to
Patients’ Use of Online Information during the
Consultation
More information
Summary: This survey, published in 2009 by the
Israel Medical Association Journal (IMAJ), explores the behavior of
primary care physicians and their patients who go online to improve
their knowledge about health care. As it seems that this practice is
well-accepted by these care providers globally, 81% of doctors responded
positively when health data from the Internet were presented by
patients. However, 4% said they were annoyed, 23% expressed discomfort
in such situation, and 13% found them irrelevant. |
June
2009 :
The Pew
Internet & American Life Project
Title :
The social life of health information
This survey was provided by The Pew Internet &
American Life Project in 2009, which analyzes the behavior of American
people when seeking health information on the Internet in 2009.
More information
Objectives: This
study focuses on analyzing the behavior of Americans concerning their
search for health information on the Internet in 2009. Many points are
addressed in this study.
Conclusions :
The results show that 74% of American adults have Internet access (all
access points combined) and 61% of adults do health research on the
Internet.
It also shows that majority of people continue to seek health
information with health professionals (86%), but they complement the
information obtained through research on the Internet (57%).
Queries regarding well being (fitness, diet, sports, ...) have increased
by 88%, going from 21% in 2002 to 38% in 2009. Searches are also often
focused on finding specific symptoms (36%), medical treatment (27%),
alternative medicine (16%) or depression (12%).
In addition more than half of requests (52%) on medical information are for family members or for a friend. |
November
2008 : Microsoft study
Title :
Cyberchondria:
Studies of the Escalation of Medical
Concerns in Web Search
This study provides evidences that Internet search engines promote cyberchondria. Microsoft defines cyberchondria as a hightened level of anxiety due to health research on the Internet.
August
2008: The Pew Internet & American Life
Project
Title :
The engages e-patient population
Discusses several statisticical data on health research
on the Internet. It shows that the Internet connection speed is a
promoting factor in Internet health research.
2006-2007
: WHIST survey : Survey conducted by INSERM (In French)
Title
: Enquête web sur les
habitudes de recherche d’informations liées
à la santé sur Internet
This study shows the social stratification of Internet
use for research on medical and health information and its implications
on the management of their health and the care utilization.
The typical profile of a health information researcher, as observed by
other studies, is checked. The typical profile is that of a young or
middle aged woman, with a high level of education, employed, living
with a partner, having a great Internet experience and facing a
health problem.
The results also indicate differing use of the Internet with regards to
health between health professionals and the general public.
2005-2007: European survey on health Internet
Title : eHealth trends across Europe
2005-2007
Survey conducted in collaboration with the
WHO. It was conducted by telephone by a Norwegian telemedicine
organization with a representative panel of people in seven European
countries. This survey was conducted twice with eighteen month intervals
to study the evolution of the usage of the Internet with regards to
health.
More information
Objective: Studying the development of
Internet use to seek health information in general, but also by country
of origin. The countries studied are:
Norway, Denmark and Germany for north and central Europe, Latvia and
Poland for Eastern Europe, Greece and Portugal in Southern Europe.
Results: In total, 7,934
interviews were conducted in 2005 and 7022 interviews in 2007. The
number of users of Internet for health purposes increased from 44% in
2005 to 54% in 2007 on all interviews. Looking only among Internet
users, 71% sought health information, and 83% did in 2007.
Conclusions: The use of the Internet for health purposes has increased in Europe. However this variation depends on the country. |
Canadian study on Internet utilization in 2005 and 2007
Results of the 2005's survey:
Survey conducted in collaboration with the
WHO. It was conducted by telephone by a Norwegian telemedicine
organization with a representative panel of people in seven European
countries. This survey was conducted twice with eighteen month intervals
to study the evolution of the usage of the Internet with regards to
health.
More information
Objectives:
To study the use of the Internet in Canada, and the influence of this on the economy.
Results:
This study showed that age, sex, educational level, economic status, as
well as the economic level of a province plays an important role in
having access to the Internet.
Among all Internet users, 42% of men
and 56.4% of women have researched the Internet for health; totaling to
49.5% of the population surveyed. Women do more research related to
health than men. Among these investigations, the demand for diagnosis or
treatment of specific diseases is the most common type of query
(61.5%). Following this, there are the analysis of specific symptoms
(44.1%), questions on lifestyle (44%) and the effects of drugs (40.5%). |
Results of the 2007’s survey
There are no results about the use of Internet for
health searches in this report. The 2007 survey focuses on Internet use
in different regions of Quebec. The results presented do not show the
types of search queries conducted by e-patients. There are about two
years between the end of the study and publication of results.
Link to the questionnaire 2007’s canadian survey
Harris Interactive Inc surveys:
Since 2002, Harris Interactive has defined cyberchondria in terms of the use of the Internet to search for health information.
Harris Interactive has conducted several surveys about the Internet to
understand the behavior of Internet users regarding Internet use and
search for medical information. More studies are available here.
Up-to-date information:
Health 2.0 news
Find up-to-date health information on this site!

Books:
2007: E-patient,
how they can
help us heal health care
Autors :
Tom Ferguson, MD (et le
e-patient schoolar working group)
The foreword was written by Rainie and Susannah Fox from
The Pew Internet & American Life Project. It presents the change in
the relationship between patients and their care providers with the
arrival of the 'e-patient' concept and increase of health care
information on the Internet.
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