Habits of Internet users and usefulness of websites in Spanish for health education.
OBJECTIVE
To analyse whether websites in Spanish are an adequate medium to be self-informed considering the surfing styles of Internet users.


METHODS
In a real context 225 subjects searched for information on the Net to answer a series of questions on two diseases and one therapeutic technique. Also, they informed their habits when using Internet.


RESULTS
Slightly more than the half of the questions were correctly answered. To find information, they visited more than 70 different pages in all cases. A major number of websites visited was not related with a better knowledge of treatment or illness (p>0.05).


CONCLUSIONS
When health professionals recommend a website to a patient (web prescription) they must consider both, the quality of the information, and the style for surfing on the Net.
Dpto. de Psicología de la Salud, University Miguel Hernández, Spain.
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D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D006266:Health Education / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D020407:Internet / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D008297:Male; D013030:Spain; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires