Poll claims 136 million US "cyberchondriacs"

The global market research and polling organization, Harris Interactive, has issued figures showing that "cyberchondriacs," adults who have ever searched for health information via the Internet, number in excess of 136 million in the USA, a 16% rise from last year. In addition, use of the Internet to search for health-related data has grown to 80%, compared with other resources, up from 72% in 2005.

Harris also found that 87% of "cyberchondriacs" considered the information available on-line "reliable." Increasingly, the survey found that patients were not discussing results with doctors.