Consumers Trek Online to Take Charge of Their Health

There has been talk for years about Americans "taking charge" of their healthcare and behaving more as active consumers than as passive patients. However true that was in the past, it's clearly becoming more true now as people avail themselves of online information, including what they see in online health-related ads. An About.com survey examined consumers' integration of the Internet into their dealings with healthcare.Online research has become a normal adjunct to a visit to the doctor's office or pharmacy, to judge from the survey's findings. Sixty-eight percent of respondents use online information about healthcare because "It enables me to be better informed when I discuss my situation with my doctor." Sixty-two percent go online because "It allows me to research medications and their potential side effects before taking them" and 61 percent because "It enables me to research and compare various treatments and therapies." (The polling was conducted online in June among a self-selected pool of visitors to the About.com site and among members of About.com's user panel.)The ready availability online of such information is a key factor in consumers' basic attitude about healthcare these days: 59 percent of respondents agreed that "Having easy access to information enables me to take charge of my healthcare decisions." Nor is it strictly a matter of checking on symptoms and medications. Fifty-three percent said online healthcare information "gives me suggestions for lifestyle adjustments I can make to improve my/my family's overall health and wellness."CHECKING OUT A PRESCRIBED DRUGHaving gone online to prep themselves for a doctor visit, many of the respondents return to the Internet after they've seen the doctor. Right after receiving a diagnosis from a doctor, 65 percent "use a search engine to find more information about the specific condition or disease"; 43 percent go to "a specific health Web site" for the same purpose. And while 32 percent said they "just trust what the doctor says and fill the prescription at the pharmacy," nearly as many (30 percent) "use a search engine to research the prescribed drug before getting it filled." Six months after being diagnosed with a long-term condition, 56 percent have looked online for information about how to cope with it. "We're seeing a significant rise in people going online to take charge of their health and to learn more about conditions and treatment options," says Evan Minskoff, vp, marketing at About Group. "The trend of not just relying on doctor diagnosis and filling a prescription is accelerating." Among examples he cites of this acceleration, 47 percent of this year's respondents reported using search engines right after a diagnosis to learn about different treatment options, vs. just 16 percent in a similar survey last year. "We're also seeing people increasingly using the health ads themselves as information and education resources," adds Minskoff. For instance, he says, 47 percent this year (vs. 42 percent last year) said they use online ads to learn about different treatment options; 46 percent this year (vs. 42 percent last year) use the online ads to learn about symptoms and conditions. And 26 percent (up from 17 percent) use the ads as a resource that helps them "speak knowledgeably with their doctors."WELCOMING 'PRINTABLE HEALTH TIPS'Asked to identify the kind of information they find most helpful in healthcare ads, 58 percent cited "information about side effects and safety of a drug"; 51 percent pointed to "information about a certain condition or disease" and 47 percent to "information about how to cope with a condition or disease." As for other features of healthcare ads, 40 percent mentioned "printable health tips" as helpful, and 38 percent cited "free trial offers."As with other sorts of online information, the online ads are being used by consumers to prepare themselves for a doctor visit. People often complain these days about being rushed in and out of the doctor's office when they have an appointment. Does this make them especially inclined to prep themselves with information from online ads so they'll be able to make the most of their limited face time with the doctor? "It's possible," says Minskoff. "We're seeing that users increasingly want to have more informed conversations with their doctors. The advertiser's message, especially when aligned with the right content, is serving as a powerful source of education for users online." One surprising finding in the survey lends credence to the old cliché that laughter is the best medicine. When respondents were asked to say whether various healthcare-ad tones or formats "would grab your attention," the strongest response went to "ads that incorporate humor" (cited by 45 percent).Humorous or otherwise, online healthcare ads do prompt consumers to take action. In the past year, 44 percent of respondents have "researched the medication in more detail online" after seeing such an ad; 35 percent have "talked to my doctor"; 17 percent have "visited the pharmaceutical company's Web site."

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Consumers Trek Online to Take Charge of Their Health

Mark Dolliver

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Mark Dolliver