Consumers of e-Health

In 2002, 80% of all adults in the United States sought health information and/or services online. This article reports the results of computer-assisted telephone interviews of a national random sample of 186 adults. The purpose of the survey was to clarify the circumstances under which consumers utilize Internet health resources and identify barriers to Internet use. The results indicated that although 78% of the respondents had used the Internet to obtain health information, only about 10% communicated by e-mail with their providers, purchased supplies over the web, or used the Internet to manage a chronic disease. At the same time, more than 50% of the respondents indicated an interest in using the Internet for clinical purposes. Major barriers to the use of the Internet for health-related purposes were potential threats to privacy, inaccuracy of information, problems in evaluating the quality of information and services obtained from the web, and physician disapproval.