Online health searchers don't check sources
WASHINGTON -- Only one-fourth of Americans who search the Internet for health advice regularly check the source and date of the information they find to assess its quality, according to a survey released yesterday by the Pew Internet Project.
About 10 million American adults -- or 7 percent of U S Internet users -- searched for information on a health topic or medical problem on a typical day in August, the non profit think tank said. That ranks health searches at about the same level of popularity as paying bills online, reading blogs, or using the Internet to find a phone number or address.
Common health topics searched on the Web include specific diseases or medical treatments, exercise, nutrition, prescription drugs, and alternative medicines, Pew said.
Just 15 percent of those surveyed said they always checked the source and date of the health information online, while another 10 percent said they did so most of the time. Three-quarters of those surveyed said they checked the source and date sometimes, hardly ever, or never, Pew said.
Most Web users look for health information with a general search engine such as Google or
Several new search engines that focus only on medical topics have become available, including Healthline.com, Medstory.com, Healia.com, Mammahealth.com, and Kosmix.com.
