LOOKING FOR INFORMATION ON INTERNET BY PATIENTS TREATED IN A HEALTH CENTER

Aim: To know those patients who use Internet to answer their questions about health issues and the assessment they make on the sources. Design: Cross Sectional study Setting: Urban Health Center in Málaga (Spain) that attends 36,000 people from very diverse social and cultural level Participants: 221 patients atended consecutively by 21 family doctors that work in El Palo Health Center. Nonresponders only 16 cases. The final sample allows studying the main aim of our research with an accuracy of 0.022 and a confidence level of 95% (alpha error 0.05). Measurements: Use of Internet, personal, health and environment characteristics of the patients studied by self-administered questionnaire. Data collection by two trained doctors in July 2015. Logistic regression multivariate analysis. Dependent variable: Use of internet to find Health information. Results: Average age of surveyed patients 48.15 years (SD = 16.67), with predominance of females (60.2%), a medium/high income in half the cases (51.6%) and education level basic (31.7%), medium (36.2%) or high (29.9%).Internet was used to answer Health questions by 34.8% of respondents. The doubts were answered in 55.6% of cases. Internet was used for the consultation at the interview time in 61.3% of those using this source of information. 61.3% think internet is a good source for information on Health issues. Conclusions: Internet use for these purposes is very common. It can be a first class source of information, especially if we teach patients where to look.