The Harris Poll^® #54, July 15, 2005

Number of "Cyberchondriacs" – U.S. Adults Who Go Online for Health Information – Increases to Estimated 117 Million

Despite a decrease over the last three years in the percentage of online U.S. adults who have ever searched the Internet for health-related information (from 80% in 2002 to 72% now), the actual number of adults who have ever searched for health information online (Harris Interactive^® refers to them as "cyberchondriacs") has grown due to an increase in the percentage of U.S. adults who go online (from 66% in 2002 to 74% in 2005).

The percentage of cyberchondriacs who search sometimes or often appears to also be on the rise. Most adults who have ever looked for health information online have been generally successful in finding what they are looking for and believe the information to be at least somewhat reliable. Furthermore, many of these people use this information in their discussions with their doctors or use the Internet to help augment the information that doctors provide them.

These are some of the results of a nationwide Harris Poll of 1,015 U.S. adults surveyed by telephone by Harris Interactive between June 7 and 12, 2005.

Specifically the survey found:

The number of U.S. adults who have ever gone online to look for health or medical information has increased to approximately 117 million up from about 111 million last year. The main reason for this increase seems to be that the total number of Internet users has been increasing (from 69% of all U.S. adults in 2004 to 74% now). Cyberchondriacs now represent 72 percent of all online adults, down slightly from last year’s 74 percent.
However, compared to last year, online adults appear to be searching the Internet for health-related information more frequently.
- Almost six in 10 (58%) say that they have looked for information about health topics often (25%) or sometimes (33%), an increase of eight percentage points from 2004 (50%).
- The percentage who says they hardly ever search for health information has dropped to 14 percent, down from 24 percent last year.
- Eighty-five percent of those who have ever searched the Internet for health information have done so one or more times in the last month. This is up substantially from last year when 60 percent said that they had gone online one or more times in the past month looking for health information.
- On average, a cyberchondriac searches the Internet almost seven times per month, an increase from five times per month a year ago and three times per month four years ago in 2001.
A large majority of cyberchondriacs (89%) indicate that they were successful in searching for health information online. Forty-six percent say that they were very successful and another 43 percent say they were somewhat successful. Among those cyberchondriacs who search for health information often, those saying they were very successful increased to 60 percent. Conversely, only a third (32%) of cyberchondriacs who hardly search for health information say that their searching was very successful.
Nine in 10 (90%) cyberchondriacs say that the health information they found online has been reliable (37% "very reliable" and 53% "somewhat reliable").

Cyberchondriacs are not only using the Internet to better educate themselves but many are also using it to assist in their discussion with their physicians. By 57 to 43 percent, a majority of adults who have gone online to get health information say that they have discussed this information with their doctor at least once. Furthermore, just over half (52%) of cyberchondriacs have searched for health information based on a discussion with their doctor.

Those who often use the Internet to find medical information are even more inclined to discuss this information with their doctor or to search for information based on a discussion with their doctor.

Over half (53%) at least sometimes talk to their doctor about information that they found online.
A higher 70 percent have gone to the Internet to look for presumably additional information to supplement what their doctors have told them.

TABLE 1

CYBERCHONDRIACS: TRENDS

	1998	1999	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005
	%	%	%	%	%	%	%
Percent of all adults who are online*	38	46	63	66	67	69	74
Percent of all those online who have looked for health information	71	74	75	80	78	74	72
Percent of all adults who have looked for health information online	27	34	47	53	52	51	53
Percent of all adults who have looked for health information online in last month	NA	NA	27	32	NA	31	45
Estimated number of adults who have looked for health information online+	54 million	69 million	97 million	110 million	109 million	111 million	117 million

Note: Percentages may not add up exactly to 100% due to rounding.

*Includes those online from home, office, school, library or other location

+ Based on July 2004 U.S. Census estimate released January 2005 (220,000,000 total U.S. adults aged 18 or over)

NA = Not Asked

TABLE 2

FREQUENCY OF ACCESSING HEALTH INFORMATION ONLINE: 1998-2005

"How often do you look for information online about health topics – often, sometimes, hardly ever or never?"

Base: Have access to Internet

	1998	1999	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005
	%	%	%	%	%	%	%
Often	12	13	16	18	17	19	25
Sometimes	30	30	30	35	37	31	33
Hardly ever	29	31	30	27	23	24	14
Never	29	26	25	20	22	26	29
Total who have looked for health or medical information sometimes or often	42	43	46	53	54	50	58
Total who have ever looked for health or medical information	71	74	75	80	78	74	72

Note: Percentages may not add up exactly to 100% due to rounding

TABLE 3

FREQUENCY OF LOOKING FOR HEALTH INFORMATION IN LAST MONTH

"About how many times have you looked for information online about health topics in the last month?"