Sunday, August 08, 2010

"Cyberchondriacs" are on the rise

Not that it comes as a surprise but it is still worth saying: “the Web is the place where people go to look for medical information.”

The Harris poll found that the proportion of those who are online, and have ever used the Internet to look for health information, has increased to 88% this year, the highest number ever. In addition,  81% of all Cyberchondriacs have looked for health information online in the last month - 17% have gone online to look for health information ten or more times in the last month.

Cripes there must be some sick people out there.

Whilst the study does not separate the results by age it has been my experience that Web savvy older people are just as likely as the young – more so since they tend to have more wrong with them – to use the web for medical information.

Bottom line. If your products are in anyway connected with the health of older people then you had better take your Web presence seriously. Dick Stroud

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