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U.S. patients are likely to seek health information from the Internet first, even though they trust their physicians more to provide them with accurate medical information, according to a report in the Archives of Internal Medicine, Reuters Health reports.

Dr. Bradford Hesse and colleagues at the National Cancer Institute analyzed results of the first Health Information National Trends Survey, a nationally representative telephone survey administered to 6,369 adults between October 2002 and April 2003. Sixty-three percent of those surveyed had used the Internet, according to the report. Of those, 63.7% had searched the Internet for health information, while less than 10% had used the Internet to purchase medication, communicate with physicians or participate in online support groups, Reuters Health reports.

Just 10.9% of those surveyed who sought cancer information consulted their physicians first, while 48.6% went online first. However, 49.5% said they wanted to go to their physicians first for information about cancer. In addition, the report found that 62.4% of respondents said they trusted physicians "a lot" for information on cancer, compared with 23.9% who trusted the Internet, Reuters Health reports.

"Ongoing attention may be needed to adjust reimbursement policies for time spent with patients interpreting printouts, for accommodating shifts toward informed and shared decision making, for steering consumers to credible information sources and for attending to the needs of those who fall through the cracks of the digital divide," the report states.

The study's authors plan to conduct the survey biennially, which they said "should serve as an important bellwether for dramatic changes in the national health information environment," Reuters Health reports (Reuters Health, 12/12).

[Source: www.ihealthbeat.org/index.cfm?Action=dspItem&itemID=117499]