{"id":94781,"date":"2013-02-25T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2013-02-25T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/2013\/02\/25\/how-many-people-use-ask-a-doctor-sites\/"},"modified":"2024-04-14T04:17:35","modified_gmt":"2024-04-14T09:17:35","slug":"how-many-people-use-ask-a-doctor-sites","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/internet\/2013\/02\/25\/how-many-people-use-ask-a-doctor-sites\/","title":{"rendered":"How many people use \u201cask a doctor\u201d sites?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Here&#8217;s a question I received that I thought was worth a public answer:<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>How many people go online to seek a doctor&#8217;s opinion about something, such as on an &#8220;ask a doctor&#8221; site?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Pew Research has not asked a survey question that specifically measures that activity, but we have something pretty close, based on our <a href=\"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/internet\/Shared-Content\/Data-Sets\/2012\/September-2012--Health-Tracking-(prelim).aspx\">September 2012 national phone survey<\/a>:<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">8% of internet users say they have, in the past 12 months, posted a health-related question online or shared their own personal health experience online in any way.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Of those:<\/p>\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>40% say they posted comments or stories about personal health experiences<\/li>\n<li>19% say they posted specific health questions<\/li>\n<li>38% say they posted both<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Also based on the small group &#8212; just 8% of internet users:<\/p>\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>78% of those who posted a comment, story, or question about their health say that they did so to reach a general audience of friends or other internet users.<\/li>\n<li>11% say they posted somewhere specifically to get feedback from a health professional.<\/li>\n<li>4% say they posted for both a general and a professional audience.<\/li>\n<li>5% say none of those choices fit.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I&#8217;m not going to do the math,\u00a0but it&#8217;s clear that only\u00a0a tiny group of U.S. adults has, in the past year, posted a question online for a doctor to answer. The more common activity, which isn&#8217;t surprising at all, is to post a question or story for peers, family, and friends to ponder. That&#8217;s the basic idea behind\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/internet\/Reports\/2011\/Medicine-20\/Part-1.aspx\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">peer-to-peer healthcare<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Join the <a href=\"http:\/\/susannahfox.com\/2013\/02\/25\/how-many-people-use-ask-a-doctor-sites\/#comments\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">discussion <\/a>on my personal blog.<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>An estimate of how many people go online to seek a doctor&#8217;s opinion about something, such as on an &#8220;ask a doctor&#8221; site (hint: a fraction of a subgroup).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":78,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sub_headline":"","sub_title":"","_prc_public_revisions":[],"_ppp_expiration_hours":0,"_ppp_enabled":false,"ai_generated_summary":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"relatedPosts":[],"reportMaterials":[],"multiSectionReport":[],"package_parts__enabled":false,"package_parts":[],"_prc_fork_parent":0,"_prc_fork_status":"","_prc_active_fork":0,"datacite_doi":"","datacite_doi_citation":"","_prc_seo_qr_attachment_id":0,"spoken_article_player_enabled":true,"displayBylines":true,"footnotes":"","prc_watchers":[],"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[105,267,319],"tags":[],"bylines":[976],"collection":[],"datasets":[],"level_of_effort":[],"primary_audience":[],"information_type":[],"_post_visibility":[],"formats":[458],"_fund_pool":[],"languages":[],"regions-countries":[],"research-teams":[526],"workflow-status":[],"class_list":["post-94781","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-health-policy","category-medicine-health","category-online-search","bylines-susannah-fox","formats-report","research-teams-internet"],"label":false,"post_parent":0,"word_count":250,"canonical_url":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/internet\/2013\/02\/25\/how-many-people-use-ask-a-doctor-sites\/","art_direction":false,"_embeds":[],"watchers":[],"table_of_contents":[],"report_materials":"","report_pagination":{"current_post":null,"next_post":null,"previous_post":null,"pagination_items":[]},"parent_info":{"parent_title":"How 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