More women research online health information

According to the results released on Thursday by The United States National Center for Health Statistics showed that more women use the Internet to search for information on health and medical conditions. Moreover, a larger number of white people than the minority communities utilize the World Wide Web to find information on various issues related to individual health.

Other factors that influence individuals

The survey also found that a higher number of white individuals aged between eighteen years and sixty-four years were twice likely to research the Internet to find health related information when compared to the Hispanic population. Some of the other findings of the study included that factors, such as education, the type of employment, total income earned, and the type of insurance cover availed influenced the individual’s use of online research to find medial information.

Researchers of the survey

The survey was undertaken by the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Health Statistics. The researchers from the Division of Health Interview Statistics included Robin A. Cohen and Patricia F. Adams. The findings of this survey were published in the NCHS Data Brief July issue.

The findings

The results of the survey showed the following:

• Fifty-seven percent of the white population searched online for health related information during the past one year. In comparison, 38% of the blacks, 29% of Hispanics, and 48% of the Asian population used the Internet for finding the information.
• Fifty-three percent of employed individuals aged between 18 and 64 years searched for the information online in comparison to 41% of unemployed individuals.
• In the age group of people between 18 and 64 years, individuals who earned higher income were more likely to search online when compared to individuals with a lower income.
• Seventy-four percent of college graduates had used the Internet to search for information when compared to only 14% of individuals whose education was less than high school.
• Individuals with private insurance (59%) searched for this information when compared to 31% of individuals using Medicaid and 33% of individuals with no insurance cover.

The conclusion

The survey found that several socio economic and socio demographic factors affected the number of individuals who searched online for health related information during the past one year. The conclusion was that people aged between 25 and 44 years, non-Hispanic white individuals, well-employed people, educated individuals, and people earning higher incomes were more likely to find such information.