The British and their use of the Web for health information and advice: a survey

Citation

(2003), "The British and their use of the Web for health information and advice: a survey", VINE, Vol. 33 No. 4. https://doi.org/10.1108/vine.2003.28733dae.011

The British and their use of the Web for health information and advice: a survey

D. Nicholas et al., Aslib Proceedings: New Information Perspectives, 2003, Vol. 55 No. 5/6, pp. 261-76

In the UK, both anecdotal and research evidence point to ever greater and more sophisticated use of the Web to provide health information and advice. The study reported here adds to this research with an online survey of Internet users' reported use of the Web to access information about health and their opinions about the advice that can be obtained there. Over a period of three weeks more than 1,300 people responded to an online questionnaire produced by The British Life and Internet Project; 81 per cent or 997 of the respondents were British. The prime purpose of the questionnaire was to obtain information on the characteristics of the users of health information Web sites, to obtain feedback as to what they used online health sites for and what were the perceived outcomes associated with using online health information.