Health Information on the Web and Consumers’ Perspectives on Health Professionals’ Responses to Information Exchange

Abstract

BackgroundHealth information technology, which is sometimes referred to as informaticization of medicine, is changing the extent to which patients become competent producers of their own health by enabling them access to health information anytime and anywhere.ObjectiveThis research provides preliminary information on users' perceptions of the extent to which use of the Internet for health information impacts medical encounters. We specifically explored the following questions: (1) To what extent perceptions of positive or negative changes in medical encounters are associated with sociodemographic background of online health information seekers, and how often the Internet information is discussed with providers? (2) To what extent is there an association between perceived changes in medical encounters and frequency of referring to the Internet during medical encounters? (3) To what extent is there an association between sociodemographic background of online health information users and frequency of discussing of the Internet information with providers?MethodsThe data for this study was derived from a national sampling of online health and medical information users who participated in the Study of Health and Medical Information in Cyberspace—Survey of User Perceptions (N=710). This study used a nationally representative online research panel of the US adults maintained by the Knowledge Networks. Analysis of variance (ANOVA), chi-square, and t tests were performed to examine the data.ResultsAlthough Internet sources allow people the opportunity to gather health or medical information, discussion of this information was not a very common activity. It is noteworthy that half of the sample never or rarely discussed health/medical information obtained from Internet sources with health professionals. Chi-square analyses revealed that discussion of online health information with providers were associated with education, income, and marital status. We also found that discussion of the Internet information mostly promotes better physician-patient interactions. Analyses with post-hoc tests identified that perceived changes in medical encounters were associated with age, education, and income. However, 9.1% (64/703) of our respondents strongly agreed that the interactions with their providers have been strained. T test analyses showed that marital status, race, and gender were not significant.ConclusionsEmbracing new technologies, and adapting to changing roles and relationships in delivery of medical care are critical to effective delivery of patient-centered care. Health professionals could also guide patients on how to evaluate information and where to access to reliable and accurate information.

Seeking health- and nutrition-related information on the Internet in a large population of French adults: results of the NutriNet-Santé study

“…Top 10 of the health-and/or nutrition-related websites cited by the participants of the NutriNet-Santé study, France information obtained on the Internet. Similar results have been reported by Seçkin et al (32) regarding educational level. Those subjects were also the ones more likely to consult non-institutional websites in our study.…”

“…In our study, only 16 % of the participants discussed health/ nutrition information found on the web with a HCP. A similar proportion (17 %) was observed in Japan (22) , about 35 (7) and 50 % (9,32) were reported in US studies and 73 % in Saudi Arabia (31) . Renahy et al (18) showed that people who were more likely to search for health information on the Internet were those who would appreciate more attention from their physician and who were more inclined to think that physicians did not tell them everything about their health.…”

“…A few studies have provided information about the reliability of health/nutrition information found on the Internet (27)(28)(29)(30) , and to our knowledge no previous study has quantified the proportion of institutional v. noninstitutional websites consulted by the public along with the respective socio-demographic profiles. In addition, limited information is available about whether individuals discuss the health information found on the Internet with a healthcare professional (HCP) (7,9,22,(31)(32)(33) .…”

eHealth, Participatory Medicine, and Ethical Care: A Focus Group Study of Patients’ and Health Care Providers’ Use of Health-Related Internet Information

“…There is growing evidence about how HRII is used in consultations [ 23 - 25 ]. For a range of reasons, however despite patients’ sourcing HRII, it may not feature in consultation discussions [ 26 ]. When HRII is discussed in medical consultations, it can have both positive and negative impacts [ 27 ] and does not always mark a shift toward patient-centeredness [ 28 ], particularly as patient and HCP perspectives on the role of HRII can differ [ 29 ].…”

Embracing Wikipedia as a teaching and learning tool benefits health professional schools and the populations they serve

“…I speculate these forces may require clinicians to re-conceptualize themselves as collaborators in the health of increasingly empowered self-aware "patient-clients". [31][32][33] Additionally, movements towards open access, open educational resources, and open scholarship are all gaining momentum. [34][35] One intriguing example in health professional education is Osmosis-a method of learning used by more than 100,000 people around the globe.…”