Patients investigate their illnesses online to become better informed and prepared to play an active role in their care, a new study by researchers at University of California (UC), Davis suggests.
“We found that mistrust was not a significant predictor of people going online for health information prior to their visit,” said Xinyi Hu, who coauthored the study as part of her master’s thesis in communication. “This was somewhat surprising and suggests that doctors need not be defensive when their patients come to their appointments armed with information taken from the Internet.”
With faculty coauthors at UC Davis and the University of Southern California, Hu surveyed more than 500 people who were members of online support groups and had scheduled appointments with a physician. Researchers assessed how the patients made use of support groups, other Internet resources, and offline sources of information, including traditional media and social relations, before their medical appointments.
Study results showed no evidence that the users of online health information had less trust in their doctors than patients who did not seek information via the Internet.
However, the study did show that several factors predicted reliance on the Internet prior to patients’ medical visits. Patients were more likely to research medical information online when their health condition was worrisome, or when they felt some level of personal control over their medical condition. Exploring online information was also greater among those who believed their illness was likely to persist.
The study also found that traditional sources of information, such as friends, health news reports, and reference books, were not replaced by Internet health information. Instead, patients used the Internet to supplement these sources.
About 40% of the patients studied printed out information to discuss with their doctors, and almost 70% stated they were planning to ask their doctor questions about the information. Furthermore, over 50% of patients were prepared to make at least 1 request of their doctor based on the Internet information.
The study, “The Prepared Patient: Information Seeking of Online Support Group Members Before Their Medical Appointments,” was published earlier this year in the Journal of Health Communication.
Source: University of California - Davis.