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CyberAtlas
Young Adults Use Net as Health Information Source
By CyberAtlas
staff
A survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation found
that most teens and young adults have gone online, but differences in
access across racial and socio-economic lines still exist.
The survey, "Generation Rx.com",
found that 90 percent of teens and young adults (age 15 to 24) have ever
gone online, and that 49 percent of those go online once a day or more.
Three out of four young people (74 percent) have access at home, and 31
percent has access from their own bedroom.
When you break the numbers down by ethnic
group, signs of a digital divide still appear, however. One in four
Hispanic youths has never gone online, compared to just 6 percent of white
youth and 13 percent of African-American youth. Eighty percent of all
white respondents have Internet access from home, compared to 66 percent
of African-Americans and 55 percent of Hispanics. Socio-economic
disparities also persist: 85 percent of youth from self-defined working
class or lower class backgrounds have been online, compared with 91
percent of middle class and 93 percent of upper and upper-middle class
youth.
The Kaiser survey also examined how teens and
young adults use the Internet for healthcare information. It found that 68
percent of young people have used the Internet to search for health
information, and one in four said they get "a lot" of health
information online. The survey also suggests that a significant proportion
of youth are acting on what they find: 39 percent of online health seekers
said they have changed their own behavior because of information they
found on the Web.
What's surprising is that the study found that
75 percent of young adults have searched for health information. That's
more than play games online (72 percent), downloaded music (72 percent),
chatted (67 percent), shopped (50 percent) or checked sports scores (46
percent). The majority (55 percent) of those who have surfed the Web for
health information do so just a few times a year, but 39 percent do so at
least once a month.
"The Internet isn't just about fun and
games for young people anymore," said Victoria Rideout, vice
president and director of the Program for the Study of Entertainment Media
and Health at the Kaiser Family Foundation. "We need to pay attention
to the quality and reliability of the health information reaching this
important audience through the Internet."
As for the specific healthcare uses of the
Web, the survey found that 50 percent of all online youths have searched
the Web for information on specific diseases such as cancer or diabetes.
Youth-oriented topics are also popular: 44 percent have turned to the
Internet for information about sexual health, including pregnancy, birth
control, HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases, and about one
in four have looked up information on weight issues (25 percent), mental
health (23 percent), drugs and alcohol (23 percent) and violence (23
percent).
Almost all (94 percent) of young people who
have looked for health information on the Internet said that what they
find is useful, including 39 percent who said it is "very
useful"), but they remain skeptical about the quality of online
health information in general. When asked about a variety of sources, 17
percent said they trust health information from the Internet "a
lot," as compared to 85 percent for doctors, 68 percent for parents
and 30 percent for the television news. And although a large majority of
young people (73 percent) said that knowing who produced health
information is very important to them, only 29 percent of those who looked
up health information online checked the source the last time they
conducted a search.
The Generation Rx.com results are based on a
random sample telephone survey of 1,209 young people ages 15 to 24. The
survey was designed and analyzed by the Kaiser Family Foundation in
consultation with International Communications Research (ICR).
Fieldwork was conducted by ICR Sept. 24 to Oct. 31, 2001. The margin of
error for the total sample is plus or minus 2.9 percentage points.
December 11, 2001
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