Pew report on health information and the internet

As part of its Internet and American Life Project, Pew just released a report about the public's use of the internet for health purposes. Here's the report's summary which was written by Suzannah Fox:

Eight in ten internet users have looked online for information on at least one of 16 health topics, with increased interest since 2002 in diet, fitness, drugs, health insurance, experimental treatments, and particular doctors and hospitals.

As reported in the July 2003 report, "Internet Health Resources,"
certain groups of internet users are the most likely to have sought health information online: women, internet users younger than 65, college graduates, those with more online experience, and those with broadband access.

Some demographic groups showed notable interest in specific topics. 59% of online women have read up on nutrition information online, for example, compared with 43% of online men. Thirty-eight percent of online parents have checked online for health insurance information, compared with 26% of internet users who do not have children living at home. Forty-one percent of internet users with a broadband connection at home have looked up a particular doctor or hospital, compared with 19% of internet users with a dial-up connection at home.

A few thoughts about the report's findings: First, I am not surprised about the overall number of individuals who turn to the internet for health information. In the past twenty to thirty years, our society has shifted from treating physicians as god-like figures who always know best, to encouraging patients to question their doctors, get second opinions, and take an active role in their own health care decision-making. In addition, with physicians spending less and less time with each patient due to institutional and economic changes in medical practice, it wouldn't surprise me if people often leave their doctor feeling unsatisfied with the information and care they were given and consequently seek these things on their own.

Nor am I surprised about the groups most likely to use the internet. Take the cases of women and internet users under 65. Women often take the role of their family's primary caregiver, feeling responsible for not only their own health but also the health of their family. When it comes to the internet, then, women may have the health issues of several persons to research. In the case of internet users under 65, this is a group who--unlike their older counterparts--are more likely to have formed their beliefs about the doctor-patient relationship during the time when the cultural shift from putting complete faith in doctors to encouraging patient involvement was taking place or had already taken place.

I am also happy that Pew asked questions about internet service. What type of service people have--i.e., dial up, modem speed, broadband, etc.--can make a huge different in how, and to what extent, they go on-line. Too often, popular and scholarly studies of the internet tend to forget that the technology's material and digital apparatus does influence the ways in which people navigate and interact with on-line spaces. Given that such studies focus on the social and cultural dimensions of this so-called new media technology, this tendency to render the actual technology invisible is ironic (not to mention problematic).

Finally, one topic I wished the study addressed further was public participation in on-line support groups and communities. These groups often provide individuals with different types of health information and learning experiences than what they can receive from text-only resource pages. Because Pew focused on general internet use and the types of health information people researched, however, the study did not emphasize the different kinds of on-line spaces in which people get (and potentially give) health information.