Where Do Consumers Go For Health Advice?
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By Georgeanne Gaulden, M.A., M.S.According to an article in the Business section of the December 4th, 2000 edition of The Dallas Morning News, "online medical advice is sought more often than shopping or investment information." A recent study funded by the Pew Internet and American Life Project found that, among Americans who have internet access, 55 percent use the web to retrieve health or medical information. What is significant about this study is that "the health decisions made by many health seekers are influenced by the health and medical information found on the web." Other major findings cited from this study indicated that 52 million Americans go on line at least once a month for health information. Most go online when someone they know, or themselves, are sick, more often than as a resource for preventive medicine. Twenty one million of these health seekers admit to being swayed by what they read online. Most go to sites for research and reference rather than to communicate directly with their caregivers or insurance providers since many fear privacy violations and sites giving away their personal medical information, especially to insurance companies and employers. Demographically, it was noted that all racial and ethnic groups are equally compelled to seek health information online, no one income level dominated, but women were more likely than men to seek online health information, as well as more wary of accuracy of information. The major downside will be accuracy of information and misleading advertisements. Chiropractic Colleges, like Parker Chiropractic College in Texas are designing consumer health information pages to add to their websites. Recognizing the power the web has over consumer health information, students will want to begin researching how they can use this information in the marketing of their practices and disseminating Chiropractic awareness. Health consumers will also be asking questions about what they have read, so the savvy DC will need to know what is "out there" and be able to defend or dispute information based on research and scientific information. It would seem the web will also provide a wealth of information for talks that he or she might want to prepare and present to various audiences. How is your personal web page going to represent you and your profession? What thought have you given to this issue? Where can you go for assistance? ---------------
Georgeanne Gaulden is the Director of Student Services at Parker Chiropractic College. You can visit the Parker Website at: www.parkercc.edu
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