Web-based consumer health information: public access, digital division, and remainders.
Public access Internet portals and decreasing costs of personal computers have created a growing consensus that unequal access to information, or a "digital divide," has largely disappeared for US consumers. A series of technology initiatives in the late 1990s were believed to have largely eliminated the divide. For healthcare patients, access to information is an essential part of the consumer-centric framework outlined in the recently proposed national health information initiative. Data from a recent study of health information-seeking behaviors on the Internet suggest that a "digitally underserved group" persists, effectively limiting the planned national health information infrastructure to wealthier Americans.
Lorence
Daniel
D
Center for Technology Assessment, Department of Health Policy and Administration and College of Information Sciences and Technology, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania, USA. dpl10@psu.edu
Park
Heeyoung
H
D022126:Access to Information; D006266:Health Education; D033181:Information Dissemination; D020407:Internet