Use of the Internet for Health Information and Communication

To the Editor: Dr Baker and colleagues reported that only 40% of US Internet users search for health information online yearly and that only 9% search for this information on a monthly basis. Industry market research studies, however, report results that differ greatly from the findings of Baker et al. Using random-digit dialing telephone methods, Cybercitizen Health found that 53% of all Internet users visited online health information sites in 2001 and that 65% did so in 2002. In addition, Cybercitizen Health found that 56% of such users accessed these sites monthly in 2001 and that 59% did so in 2002. In contrast, Baker et al found that only 22% of such users visited monthly in 2002. The Cybercitizen Health data also indicated that 30% of all Internet health information users are monthly users of the WebMD Network alone, a percentage in excess of the 22% overall that Baker et al reported. Similarly, according to published WebMD Business Intelligence figures, the WebMD network alone had 15.9 million average monthly visitors in the first quarter of 2002, again far exceeding the 12.1 million that Baker et al estimated for all Internet health sites. We believe that the methods of Baker et al were flawed due to the manner in which the information was collected. The study sample was based on an Internet panel that was given the incentive of a free WebTV offer. Less than 10% of the Internet population uses WebTV, thus making such a panel unlikely to be representative of either the online population or the population as a whole.