Ilene

The Pew Internet and American Life Project is a very good resource for
statistics on this topic as well as other topics related to usage of the
Internet.

 

http://www.pewinternet.org/PPF/r/117/report_display.asp

 

Bonnie B.  Anton MN RN

University of Pittsburgh Medical Center

 

-----Original Message-----
From: healthliteracy-bounces at nifl.gov
[mailto:healthliteracy-bounces at nifl.gov] On Behalf Of IHABRAMSON at aol.com
Sent: Friday, March 02, 2007 8:13 PM
To: healthliteracy at nifl.gov
Subject: [HealthLiteracy 730] Re: Wednesday Question: Where
doeshealthinformation...

 

But where  does his leave many of the older people who are not computer
literate and do not want to have anything to do  with the Internet,  etc.
Does someone have statistics re the number of US seniors who go online?

 

Ilene

 

In a message dated 3/2/2007 9:12:50 A.M. Pacific Standard Time,
NDavies at dthr.ab.ca writes:

Almost all of the people I speak to in the Wellness Centre go through the
internet for health information, namely, Google, Yahoo, Lycos, Sympatico.
With this in mind, I signed up for the Searching for Online Consumer Health
Information course through the Canadian site www.thepartnership.ca . It was
really helpful - the percentage of people who search for online health
information is astounding. The worrying thing is that sites with 'approved'
consumer health information (written in lay terms) are often found on very
expensive databases, which I am sure most people do not even know exist.

As for health information that comes to us - there are countless hours of
commercials marketing pills/potions as the cure to lifestyle diseases, like
wrinkles, saggy skin, ergonomic pains (like the Advil commercial of the
woman typing SO wrongly, (extend your arms, pull your hands up so they are
perpendicular to your forearms, and move your fingers as though you were
typing - how painful is that?) modify your actions, and you remove or reduce
the need for pain killers.

I have noticed an increase in the frequency of herbal medication flyers, all
claiming to help the consumer lose weight, regrow hair, fix pimples etc. Let
us not forget, also, the 'information' people receive from their friends and
coworkers, like taking laxatives to lose 'water weight', not eating past
13:30 'to burn off your calories, and so on. 

All of the "false" information people 'internalise' also affects the way
they interpret reliable health information: they factor in their
preconceived notions about a health topic, including the misinformation
about a specific subject - how do we counteract the health charlatans? 

For as long as we have had medical practitioners, we have had salesmen and
their snake-oil.

-----Original Message-----
From: healthliteracy-bounces at nifl.gov
[mailto:healthliteracy-bounces at nifl.gov]On Behalf Of Julie McKinney
Sent: Thursday, March 01, 2007 7:52 PM
To: healthliteracy at nifl.gov
Subject: [HealthLiteracy 722] Wednesday Question: Where does
healthinformation come from?


Hi Everyone,

It was suggested recently that we look at a variety of ways that people in
this country interact with health information, in order to look beyond the
provider-patient interaction as a focus of our efforts. So, I would love us
all to ask around and look around this week to find out how people get their
health information. Teachers can ask students, providers can ask patients,
and all of us can ask people we know and look at the health messages that we
see every day. 

So, it's really two questions:

Where do people seek health information when they want it?

and

In what ways does health information come to us automatically?

All the best,
Julie



Julie McKinney
Discussion List Moderator
World Education/NCSALL
jmckinney at worlded.org

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