{"id":95904,"date":"2009-06-11T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2009-06-11T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/2009\/06\/11\/a-shifting-landscape\/"},"modified":"2024-04-14T04:13:51","modified_gmt":"2024-04-14T09:13:51","slug":"a-shifting-landscape","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/internet\/2009\/06\/11\/a-shifting-landscape\/","title":{"rendered":"A Shifting Landscape"},"content":{"rendered":"

Americans are tapping into a widening network of both online and offline sources.<\/h3>\n\n

The Pew Research Center\u2019s Internet & American Life Project conducts ongoing surveys about the social impact of the internet, including its effect on health and health care. Starting in 2000 with the findings of \u201cThe Online Health Care Revolution\u201d and continuing over the last 10 years, we measured the increasing use of health-related internet resources in the United States.[3.numoffset=”3″ See Pew Internet Project: Health https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/internet\/topics\/Health.aspx<\/a>]<\/p>\n\n

The landscape has changed significantly since the spring of 2000, when 46% of American adults had access to the internet, 5% of U.S. households had broadband connections, and 25% of American adults looked online for health information. <\/p>\n\n

Now 74% of American adults go online, 57% of American households are connected via broadband and 61% of adults look online for health information. Further, many American adults now have an \u201calways present\u201d connection via wireless devices. Mobile access is changing the behavior of internet users and, in particular, changing the behavior of health care consumers. The mobile internet draws people into conversations about health as much as online tools enable research. <\/a><\/p>\n\n

The Pew Internet Project has mapped this landscape by asking American adults about their assets, actions, and attitudes related to internet and communications technology.[4. John Horrigan, \u201cThe Mobile Difference.\u201d (Pew Internet & American Life Project: March 25, 2009) See: https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/internet\/Reports\/2009\/5-The-Mobile-Difference–Typology.aspx<\/a>] It turns out that 39% of adults are Motivated by Mobility. If they have a desktop computer, they use wireless technology not as a replacement, but as a supplement to that \u201cwireline\u201d connection. Mobile access creates a continual information exchange that feeds on itself and reinforces collaborative behavior.\u00a0 By contrast, 61% of adults are the Stationary Media Majority. Many are on the \u201chave\u201d side of the so-called digital divide. They may have broadband and they may have a cell phone, but they are rooted in old media. They are just not that into the hive mind enabled by always-connected technologies such as Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, and the like.<\/p>\n\n

The Project\u2019s December 2008 survey, conducted in partnership with the California HealthCare Foundation, brings together two other streams of our research: Americans\u2019 use of social media and their pursuit of health information.<\/p>\n\n

The survey confirms the well-established finding that 8 in 10 internet users, or 61% of U.S. adults, have looked online for health information.[5. Pew Internet Project surveys conducted in 2002, 2004, 2006, 2007, and 2008 consistently find that between 75-83% of internet users look online for health information.]<\/p>\n\n

But more importantly, this survey finds that Americans\u2019 pursuit of health takes place within a widening network of both online and offline sources. The internet supplements, but does not replace, traditional sources of health information. The vast majority of people with a health question or concern say they consult a health professional. The second most popular choice is to ask friends and family. The internet and books, or other printed reference materials, are essentially tied at third place among U.S. adults who need information or assistance dealing with health or medical issues.<\/p>\n\n

Looking closer at how people use the internet for health care, it is clear that some are going online to connect, in fact, with what we think of as traditional sources: health professionals, friends, and families. People tap into their social networks, both online and offline. Whereas someone may have in the past called a health professional, their Mom, or a good friend, they now are also reading blogs, listening to podcasts, updating their social network profile, and posting comments. And many people, once they find health information online, talk with someone about it offline.<\/p>\n\n

This Pew Internet\/California HealthCare survey finds that technology is not an end, but a means to accelerate the pace of discovery, widen social networks, and sharpen the questions someone might ask when they do get to talk to a health professional. Technology can help to enable the human connection in health care and the internet is turning up the information network\u2019s volume.<\/p>\n\n

61% of adults in the U.S. gather health information online.<\/h3>\n\n

Three-quarters of American adults, age 18 and older, have access to the internet, a percentage which held steady throughout 2008. <\/p>\n\n

83% of internet users, or 61% of U.S. adults,\u00a0have looked online for information about any of the health topics we ask about, ranging from information about a specific disease, a certain treatment, alternative medicine, health insurance,\u00a0doctors, hospitals, and ways to stay healthy.<\/p>\n\n

Internet users with home broadband or wireless access are more likely than dial-up and tethered internet users to look online for health information.<\/p>\n\n

\"e-patients<\/figure>\n<\/p>\n\n

\"Demographics<\/figure>\n<\/p>\n\n

\"Internet<\/figure>\n<\/p>\n\n

\"Health<\/figure>\n<\/p>\n\n

The internet does not replace health professionals.<\/h3>\n\n

American adults continue to turn to traditional sources of health information, even as many of them deepen their engagement with the online world. When asked, “Now thinking about all the sources you turn to when you need information or assistance in dealing with health or medical issues, please tell me if you use any of the following sources…” <\/i><\/p>\n\n