France's FNIM reveals patient info survey data

France's National Federation for Medical Information (FNIM) has published a snapshot of French attitudes towards drug and health care information. The main finding is that a majority (57%) of respondents declared themselves to be "proactive" in searching for medical information, a trend which is greater among older people. Two thirds (66%) of respondents said they had made at least one enquiry about medical information in the previous year.

Of the methods used to locate information, the clear leader, with 67% of people utlilizing it, was the Internet. Physicians were considered by 46%.

For their part, physicians believe that 90% of their patients who search for medical and drug-related information use the Internet, 29% use the specialist medical and health care press, and only 25% trust doctors. A notable feature is the low impact of television on medical information: only 3% of the public finds information via that medium, though physicians believe that 11% of patients do so.