Canadians Influenced by On-Line Medical Information

Majority of Canadian online Health Consumers Act on the Information Found on the Internet

TORONTO, March 30 /CNW/ - Canadian online patients and health information seekers are being strongly influenced by the disease and medication information they find online. "The majority of research respondents say that they take action, in fact only 18% indicate they do nothing," stated researchers at Essential Research Inc.

The actions include:

scheduling an appointment with their doctor,
taking a natural/alternative medication,
asking their doctor to prescribe a specific medication or to switch a medication,
sharing information online with others,
or stopping a prescription medication.

Essential Health Consumer is the first study that digs deeper for an understanding of how Canadian online patients and health information seekers search for and use online disease and in particular, medication information.

"The results of this research are highly relevant for Pharmaceutical and Healthcare organizations who deploy online tactics targeting patients or health consumers," said the researchers. They went on to add, "This research will also help them determine how best to allocate their online dollars".

Other key findings include: how health searches are being conducted, the most credible sources for disease and medication information; how credibility is checked; relevance of Canadian vs. non-Canadian sites, the evolving role of the Internet in the direct-to-consumer cascade of information, and usage of social media platforms.

This online survey of 1,000 Canadian online patients and health information seekers was conducted between November 26th and December 1st, 2008. It is accurate to within +/- 3.1 percentage points, 95% of the time.

For more information on the Essential Health Consumer Study, please follow: http://www.essentialresearch.ca/essential-health-consumer.aspx?cid=ec&source=cnw&mid=press