A Web Science Approach to Online Health Behaviours

The 2006 Online Health Search, a US survey by the Pew Internet & American Life Project, showed that “prescription or over-the-counter drugs” was the fifth most widely searched health topic on the Web. The most recent study conducted by the Pew Project in September 2012, found that 72% of Internet users they surveyed, looked online for health information within the past year. As well as providing knowledge, the Web is also a retail opportunity which allows the buying of medicinal products online.

The advent of online pharmacies and health related information and purchasing online puts individuals in the position of a customer in the market place, able to make choices among the products marketed to them by commercial firms, rather than a patient subject to the authoritative guidance of professionals. The exercise of consumer choice and the need for the purchaser to take more responsibility to verify that the medicines available are what they claim to be is highly significant. In some cases consumers are making decisions without consulting health professionals. There is conflict between the value of individuals being able to pursue their own interests and the values of efforts by the state to reduce harm, use public resources fairly and efficiently, and social solidarity.

In providing a new opportunity to purchase medicine the Web appears to remove or bypass some of the threats and sanctions normally associated with illegal drug purchasing, though the reality is that the risks have not been reduced but are simply more clandestine. The study of the Web is necessarily multidisciplinary – we need to understand the technology and the way people and society use and shape it. Web science and innovative methodological approaches can assist our understanding of these emerging digital behaviours.

Katie Smith says:

November 11, 2013 at 7:09 pm

The survey you mention is based in the US. The healthcare in the US is costly as they do not have a health care system such as the NHS. I am assuming (maybe I shouldn’t!) that if people have to pay large costs for medicines then they are going to want the best deal? The web has enabled us all to search for anything we want within seconds and for the best/cheapest price possible. For the long-term sick or people with terminal illnesses and no health insurance, the internet may be the answer to their problems.

This would also answer why some people aren’t going to their doctors for diagnosis – cost is a huge factor in human behaviour. There are risks involved in self-diagnosis or internet-diagnosis – probably more than people realise.

Lisa Sugiura says:

November 14, 2013 at 11:17 am

Hi Katie,

Thanks for your reply.

Yes, as you correctly point out the evidence provided is from the US and so we need to be mindful of differing contexts and regulation in different countries. The motivations you mention may explain the behaviour of some US citizens, and certainly there are many positive and empowering factors about the advent of online health information and health technologies. However, the risks are still significant, and we know very little about how people make their online healthcare choices, or what influences them (is it on or offline information/ experience etc.). Statistics also tend to focus on individual jurisdictions rather than globally, and so it is exceptionally difficult to appreciate the full situation. Alternatively it is also difficult to try to scale the focus down to just one country as inevitably the Web challenges jurisdictional borders. Anyway here’s some UK statistics to provide a bit more of the UK context:

Figures published by the Office of National Statistics in 2008 claimed that 34% of all UK Internet users have used it to seek health-related information, and the 2009 Oxford Internet Survey (Dutton, et al. 2009) found that 68% of British Internet users had searched for health information online.

Best wishes

Lisa

Katie Smith says:

November 15, 2013 at 2:01 pm

Hi Lisa,

Thanks for your feedback to my response. You are right in pointing out that the cost element will apply to only some US and probably even world wide web users. Curiosity and people’s impatience may also be a [large] factor. Obtaining a doctors appointment (certainly in Britain at the moment) can be like an obstacle race – a quick glance at the internet for symptoms and you may be able to delete that obstacle… or as you inferred it may make things far worse and create a fear based on inaccurate, unprofessional information -that basically anyone could have placed on the internet!.

Mm, the thought process goes on and on.