Women are more likely than men to use the Internet to search for health information, according to a new data brief by CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics, HealthDay reports.
The report was based on data from the 2009 National Health Interview Survey, which collected data from 27,731 U.S. adults (Dotinga, HealthDay, 7/21).
Key Findings
The data brief found that women searched online for health data at a higher rate than men across nearly all age groups. The gender gap was largest among adults ages 25 to 34. In that age group, 65.8% of women reported searching for health data on the Internet in the previous 12 months, compared with 44.4% of men.
However, among adults age 65 and older, 24.4% of men had searched online for health data in the previous year, compared with 21.9% of women.
Researchers also found that:
57.3% of non-Hispanic whites reported searching online for health data;
47.8% of Asians reported searching online for health data;
38.3% of blacks reported searching online for health data; and
28.8% of Hispanics reported searching online for health data.
In addition, the data brief noted that people with higher incomes, privately insured individuals and those with more education were more likely to use the Internet to look up health information (Fiore, MedPage Today, 7/25).
