US

The growth of private individuals searching on-line for health care-related information, including to find out about pharmaceutical treatments, has grown considerably from 38% of US adults in 2001 to 72% in 2007, according to the Center for Studying Health System Change's (HSC) annual survey of household health tracking. Other data from Harris Interactive indicates that the trend may be slowing, when 150 million US residents in the year to July 2008 were estimated to be "cyberchondriacs," a dip from 160 million reported last year (Marketletter August 20, 2007).

There is some debate as to whether people search for information about medicines because it is available from not always official sources, or if they are merely transposing the use of on-line tools from other areas, such as looking for a home, auto insurance or the quickest route to a destination. The HSC report is of interest for this issue, because it reports that overall health information seeking by the public has grown among Internet users and non-users alike. The Center's figures differ from Harris' because the former measures searches for personal use only, with 122 million people fitting its definition of cyberchondriacs, as opposed to the broader definition used by Harris, which includes health care-related information requests on behalf of friends and family members.

Harris survey reported fall in number of US "cyberchondriacs"