Ybarra Michele L, Suman Michael
Internet Solutions for Kids, Inc., 74 Ashford, Irvine, CA 92618, USA.
Int J Med Inform. 2006 Jan;75(1):29-41. doi: 10.1016/j.ijmedinf.2005.07.029. Epub 2005 Aug 29.
Health-related websites have the potential to powerfully influence the attitudes and behavior of consumers. Access to reliable disease information online has been linked to reduced anxiety, increased feelings of self-efficacy, and decreases in utilization of ambulatory care. Studies report that Internet health information seekers are more likely to have health concerns; adult seekers are more likely to rate themselves as having poor health status and adolescent seekers are more likely to demonstrate clinical impairment or depressive symptomatology compared to non-seekers. Although more and more Americans are using the Internet for healthcare information, little is known about how this information affects their health behaviors. The current study extends the literature by examining characteristics associated with help seeking, either from a healthcare provider or from peers, as a direct result of health information found online. Medical care seekers appear to be using the Internet to enhance their medical care; they report using the information online to diagnose a problem and feel more comfortable about their health provider's advice given the information found on the Internet. Support seekers tend to be of slightly lower income compared to non-support seekers. They are also significantly more likely to have searched for information about a loved one's medical or health condition, signaling that many of these consumers may be caretakers.
与健康相关的网站有可能对消费者的态度和行为产生强大影响。在线获取可靠的疾病信息与焦虑感降低、自我效能感增强以及门诊医疗利用率下降有关。研究报告称，与不寻求信息的人相比，在网上寻求健康信息的人更可能有健康方面的担忧；成年寻求者更可能认为自己健康状况不佳，青少年寻求者更可能表现出临床损伤或抑郁症状。尽管越来越多的美国人通过互联网获取医疗保健信息，但对于这些信息如何影响他们的健康行为却知之甚少。当前的研究通过考察因在网上找到的健康信息而直接向医疗保健提供者或同龄人寻求帮助的相关特征，扩展了相关文献。寻求医疗服务的人似乎在利用互联网来改善他们的医疗保健；他们报告说利用网上信息来诊断问题，并且鉴于在互联网上找到的信息，对医疗保健提供者的建议更放心。与不寻求支持的人相比，寻求支持的人的收入往往略低。他们也明显更有可能搜索过有关亲人医疗或健康状况的信息，这表明这些消费者中有许多人可能是照顾者。
