Americans Increasingly Turn to Web for Health Data

Americans turn to the Internet as a primary source for medical and health information almost as much as they rely on their personal physicians, according to a poll released Tuesday.

The 2007 Consumer Medical and Health Information poll, commissioned by search engine Ask.com and performed by Harris Interactive Inc., revealed that 70 percent of adults use the Internet as a primary source for health information, while 72 percent describe their doctor as a primary source.

Of the more than 3,300 American adults polled in early July, 40 percent reported using friends and family as a medial information resource, 30 percent said they turn to newspapers and magazines and 26 percent call television a primary source of health data.

Two-thirds of those surveyed said they use search engines to gather information to help them better understand or diagnose a medical problem, and more than half reported doing searches for family and friends.

The study also found that 76 percent adults older than 55-years-old -- sometimes stereotyped as eschewing the Web -- use the Internet to help diagnose and better understand a medical condition. Almost a quarter of younger adults -- those 18 to 34 -- noted in the poll that they use the Internet because they are too embarrassed to talk to anyone about their health issues.

Finally, nearly 28 percent of adults reported that they use the Internet to find alternative health options like homeopathic treatments.

In conjunction with the poll results, Ask.com announced a new feature on its site called Health Smart Answers, which is designed to help users find medical information faster.

The feature, developed with partners Healthline Networks and Revolution Health, arranges search results so that those selected by the health care providers as trusted content on diseases, treatments, medications and other medical topics are listed first, the company said.

Healthline Networks, which operates a health care portal and is backed by insurers Aetna and Kaiser Permanente among others, and Revolution, a consumer and health Web site created by AOL co-founder Steve Case, provide definitions, images, links to reference materials and other data for Health Smart Answers.

Ask.com is not the only search engine turning an eye toward health care. In June, Google Inc. announced that it was forming an advisory council on health care to help guide the company in delivering better search results and advise it on new product development.