Kaiser Foundation Survey Finds Teens Turn to Web for Health Info
Originally published by Reuters Health, December 11, 2001
NEW YORK — Teens and young adults use the Web to find health-related information as often as they do to play games or downloading music, and more often than they shop online, according to a national survey released by the Kaiser Family Foundation on Tuesday.
The survey found that one in four people 15 to 24 years old say they get "a lot" of health information online and a significant proportion of youth are acting on what they read there.
"We had no idea that so many young people were going online to get health information. A lot of us assumed that they were going online just to download the latest Red Hot Chili Peppers song, so that was a surprise," said Victoria Rideout, vice president and director of the program for the study of entertainment media and health at the foundation.
Nearly 40% of those surveyed said they have changed their behavior because of information they found on the Web.
The survey, Generation Rx.com, includes findings on how young people use the Internet as a health resource, their concerns about confidentiality, their opinions on filtering technology and online pornography, and new data on where and how often teens and young adults are going online.
Half of all youths who use the Web have searched it for information on specific diseases such as cancer or diabetes. Sensitive, youth-oriented topics such as HIV/AIDS, birth control and sexually transmitted diseases are also popular.
About one in four of those surveyed had looked up information on body-weight issues, mental health, drugs and alcohol or violence.
"Confidentiality is so important and at this point most young people have faith that the Internet offers them that confidentiality," Rideout said.
The majority of youth who surf the Web for health information do so just a few times a year, but nearly four in 10 do so at least once a month, the survey found.
Among the total pool of young people surveyed, 90% have gone online and three out of four have Internet access at home.
About 17% of the young people said they would trust health information found on the Web "a lot" while 40% said they would trust it at least "somewhat."
Rideout said the study, one of the first to look at this age group's interest in health issues on the Web, raises a series of questions, including the quality of the information available to this age group.
Among 15- to 17-year-olds who were looking for health information online, nearly half said they have been blocked from sites that they said were non-pornographic due to filtering, the survey found.
