Use and perception of internet for health related purposes in Germany: results of a national survey.

OBJECTIVES: Patient empowerment through the Internet is seen as a chance to improve patient-physician communication. Studies on the prevalence of Internet use for health related purposes and on how patients perceive those technologies are still rare. We therefore studied perception of and trends in health related Internet use. METHODS: As part of a European survey 1.000 German individuals were interviewed using a computer-based telephone interview (CATI: Gabler-Hider-Design, random-digit-dialing, last birthday method) in October 2005. Descriptive statistics and logistic regression models were applied for elaborating characteristics of the health Internet users. RESULTS: Internet use in general (72.3%) and for health related purposes (53.1%) is already quite high. Its importance, relative to other sources of health related information, was rated rather low. Younger citizens and people with paid work used the Internet more often for health related purposes, nevertheless, assessing it as less important for health related purposes than their counterparts. CONCLUSION: Despite booming of Internet use in Germany, consumers still value and use more the traditional sources of health information/communication with their doctors. Followup studies with a subsequent survey in 2007 will be pursued.

German healthcare consumer's perception of the Internet as a source of health related information.

OBJECTIVE: To determine the extent to which German health-care consumers seek health related information on line and their perceived importance of the internet, as compared to other sources of health information. RESEARCH DESIGN: Computer-assisted telephone interviews through which surveys were conducted concomitantly in seven European countries, including Germany. The instrument of the survey was a questionnaire designed in English and subsequently translated in German using a dual focus approach. SUBJECTS: A household sample generated by random digit dialling, including 934 individuals (age 15-80. OUTCOME: Internet was used by 675 (72.1%) respondents, 73.5% of whom (53.2% of the total sample) looked for health related information. The importance of internet was rated rather low in comparison with other sources of health related information, while direct contact with healthcare professionals was deemed the most important source of health information by all socio-demographic groups considered, regardless of whether they used the internet or not.