Family Medicine Patients’ Use of the Internet for Health Information: A MetroNet Study

Article Figures & Data

Table 1.

Demographic Characteristics of Patient Survey Respondents and Non-respondents

Characteristic	Respondents N (%)	Non-respondents N (%)	P Value^*
Sex			.063
Male	441 (34.2)	44 (42.7)
Female	805 (62.5)	57 (55.3)
Missing	43 (3.3)	2 (2.0)
Age			<.001
<40 years	555 (43.1)	27 (26.2)
40–64 years	568 (44.1)	44 (42.7)
≥65 years	106 (8.2)	22 (21.4)
Missing	60 (4.6)	10 (9.7)
Race/ethnicity			.802
African American	470 (36.4)	41 (39.8)
White	641 (49.7)	49 (47.6)
Other^†	123 (9.5)	9 (8.7)
Missing	55 (4.3)	4 (3.9)
Education		Not collected
Less than high school	121 (9.4)
High school graduate	325 (25.2)
Some college	521 (40.4)
Bachelor’s degree	143 (11.1)
More than Bachelor’s degree	102 (7.9)
Missing	77 (6.0)
Income		Not collected
<$15,000	231 (17.9)
$15,000–$24,999	153 (11.9)
$25,000–$39,999	223 (17.3)
$40,000–$69,999	272 (21.1)
≥$70,000	234 (18.2)
Missing	176 (13.7)

* χ² test used to compare proportions of given variables between respondents and non-respondents, except age, which used Student’s t test for comparison of means.
† Other category includes: Hispanic (35.6%), Asian/Pacific Islander (17.4%), Native American (12.9%), unspecified other (34.1%).

Table 2.

Demographic Predictors of Internet Access

Demographic Variable	Unadjusted OR	Adjusted^* OR (95% CI)
Male	0.94	0.70 (0.50, 0.97)
Age
<40 years	7.57	5.67 (3.10, 10.36)
40 to 64 years	3.78	2.95 (1.63, 5.35)
≥65 years	Reference
Race/ethnicity
White	2.16	1.97 (1.42, 2.72)
Other	0.96	1.25 (0.72, 2.18)
Black	Reference
Education
Less than or equal to high school	Reference
Some college	4.80	3.88 (2.80, 5.37)
More than or equal to Bachelor’s degree	10.82	7.24 (4.36, 12.03)
Income
<$25,000	Reference
$25,000–$69,999	3.25	2.21 (1.57, 3.10)
≥$70,000	10.40	4.80 (2.84, 8.11)

* Each demographic variable was adjusted for all the other demographic variables.

Table 3.

Patient Internet Searches by Type of Health-related Topic, and Number of Health-related Topics Searched per Respondent (N = 622)

	N	%
Health topics searched on-line
Specific disease or condition	493	79
Medications	332	53
Nutrition and exercise	300	48
Healthcare providers	220	35
Illness prevention	211	34
Alternative therapies	153	25
Other	7	1
Missing	3	0.5
Number of above health-related topics searched
One category	151	24
Two categories	149	24
Three categories	137	22
Four or more categories	182	29
No category	3	0.5

Table 4.

Factors Influencing the Perceived Accuracy of Healthcare Websites and Methods of Checking the Accuracy of Internet Health Information

	N	%
Factors influencing perceived accuracy of healthcare web sites (N = 615)
Endorsement by a government agency or professional organization	296	48
Reliable source/author	289	47
Understandability of the information	275	45
Site is updated frequently	166	27
Layout and appearance of the site	74	12
Sponsored by a reputable drug company	72	12
Medical advertising is on the site	47	8
Methods of checking the accuracy of Internet health information (N = 614)
Discuss with healthcare provider	334	54
Compare information from different sites	295	48
Compare with non-Internet sources (print sources, TV, etc)	247	40
Discuss with friends or family	244	40
Never check the accuracy	65	11