Use of Health Information Technology

Do you ever wonder what percentage of your adult patients use the internet to access health information? If so, you may be interested in a data brief prepared by Wang and Cohen (2023).

These authors used data from the 2022 National Health Interview Survey (July through December) to determine the percentage of adults who used the internet to seek out medical/health information, correspond with a medical provider (or their office), and to look up medical test results. They also examined differences in regards to gender, age, and race, and Hispanic origin for these three questions.

The largest percentage of internet use was reported for looking up health information (58.5 percent), with the smallest for communicating with a medical provider (41.5 percent).

Women compared to men, the age range between 30-44 years compared to the other age categories, and those who identified as non-Hispanic White and non-Hispanic Asians compared to those who identified as Black or Hispanic had the largest percentages of users of the internet for these purposes.

Interested readers may use the access the full data brief to find additional details regarding study methodology, analyses, and results.

Reference

Wang X, Cohen RA. (2023) Health information technology use among adults: United States, July–December 2022. NCHS Data Brief, no 482. Hyattsville, MD: National Center for Health Statistics.