---
title: "Health Information-Seeking on a Typical Day"
description: "A new study from MD Anderson Cancer Center cites our health data."
date: "2008-02-11"
authors:
  - name: "Susannah Fox"
    job_title: "Former Researcher"
    link: "https://www.pewresearch.org/staff/susannah-fox/"
url: "https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2008/02/11/health-information-seeking-on-a-typical-day/"
categories:
  - "Health Policy"
  - "Healthcare Online"
  - "Medicine & Health"
  - "Online Search"
tags:
  - "Search"
---

# Health Information-Seeking on a Typical Day

Since a [press release](http://www.mdanderson.org/departments/newsroom/display.cfm?id=45F9A312-91C1-454C-A1525140EEFFEDCD;A;D;A;7&method=displayFull&pn=00c8a30f-c468-11d4-80fb00508b603a14) about a new study from MD Anderson Cancer Center cites our health data, I thought I'd provide a few links to relevant reports.

Here is the quote from our 2002 report, [Vital Decisions](https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/PPF/r/59/report_display.asp), which was cited today: "In a national survey conducted March 1-31, 2002, the Pew Internet Project found that 62% of Internet users, or 73 million people in the United States, have gone online in search of health information... About 6 million Americans go online for medical advice on a typical day. That means more people go online for medical advice on any given day than actually visit health professionals, according to figures provided by the American Medical Association."

A more recent estimate is included in [Online Health Search 2006](https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/PPF/r/190/report_display.asp): "Eighty percent of American internet users, or some 113 million adults, have searched for information on at least one of seventeen health topics... 7% of e-patients, or about 8 million American adults, searched for information on at least one health topic on a typical day in August 2006. This places health searches at about the same level of popularity on a typical day as paying bills online, reading blogs, or using the internet to look up a phone number or address."

If you are interested in the findings of today's study, which was published in the journal Cancer, there is an [audio interview](http://www.medpagetoday.com/HematologyOncology/BreastCancer/tb/8302) with the lead author, Funda Meric-Bernstam, M.D., on Medpage Today.