An Internet Phenomenon Of Epidemic Proportions takes

They’d probably do more for their health if they turned off their computers and ran briskly around the block. Nonetheless, growing numbers of Americans are using the Internet to search for information on health and healthcare. A Harris Poll finds the average “cyberchondriac” goes online for such information three times a month, “searching mainly through portals or search engines rather than by going directly to particular sites.” The proportion of online adults who are cyberchondriacs has risen just modestly since a 1998 Harris survey, from 71 percent then to 80 percent now.